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Roland Culberson - April 2004
Girls & Boys With Really Neat Toys>
And things that go "whirr" through the night
This past week in Chiefland was a somewhat different event than in the
past. To begin with, the village has limited the attendance to members
only, which reduced the overall number of folks a bit. Secondly, the
weather that was ordered came in as ordered, and was superb.
Andrew and I arrived on Wednesday about mid-day, accompanied by Jim
Kimball, and found the field a bit open. Ah, a choice of spots from which
to observe! We selected the same old spots we have tried to get for the
last few trips up, as they allow for optimal views of the glob-daddy,
Omega Centauri. We were not let down whatsoever. The grand old glob made
its normal nightly appearance, resulting in the traditional "bow to the
globs" position, starting around 10:30PM. One small change here was that
I got to not only bow down at the 18" scope, but also to stand on my toes.
The TMB pointed at the low point that Omega C. occupies puts the eyepiece
end of the tube well into the nosebleed area. No problem though, I took
plenty of altitude sickness pills!
About the girls, well, ask Andrew the next time you see him.
About the boys and the toys, well keep on reading. This trip was unique,
as it was the first time in recent trips that the restriction to members
only had been made. It made for plenty of time to go around and look at
other peoples' stuff. There was plenty of that to go around. This time,
we had the chance to get a look at Tom Clark's new 42" monster, The Beast.
I had seen the mirror box on an earlier visit when I was allowed into Tom's
shop, and my initial reaction then was to ask who's car he was building a
coffin for. Seeing the whole enchilada makes a bit more sense, and I have
only two words for it. Holy Cow! I thought I understood the meaning of
"Large Aperture Amateur Telescope", but was left close to speechless this
time. (Can't quite imagine that, eh?) Standing in the observatory with this
made the observatory seem much smaller than I remembered it being when I
was there a year back, and it had no occupant. This scope is VERY large.
Tom told me to move it while I was standing toward the rear, so I grabbed
the handle for Azimuth and prepared for a back injury in the coming
attempt. I can tell you that you could have knocked me over with a feather
after I did move it. I am sure we are all aware of the rising cost of gas,
and for that matter anything to do with oil products? Well, Detroit NEEDS
to talk to Tom. This scope weighs in at fifteen hundred pounds, and I
moved it with TWO FINGERS! If the resistance to movement can be reduced
to this point, I'd bet he could teach them how to get a couple hundred
miles per gallon out of a Hummer, and just think about the normal guys'
cars! I was floored at the ease of movement this scope demonstrates, and
I seriously think my 18 requires more to get it moving. (And I think the
18 moves exceptionally well!) Tom has installed roller bearings in most
all the points that the scope rotates in both altitude and azimuth, and
they are peachy. See the photos for a few neat tricks he built into it.
Of particular note is the swiveling eyepiece case built in at the focuser.
A few choice Televues were located in it as wee looked it over. I would
think that the change of eyepieces would require no trip down the ladder
on this job!
Other neat toys...
Pat Rochford and Rod Mollise showed up this time without the "120 MPH
limited" trailer that had accompanied them in the last trips we have
seen them make. This trip was the "back to the roots" model. They came
in the black SUV they have always come with, and just brought scopes and
stuff to the field. They went upscale on the sleeping arrangements and
got a room at the Holiday Inn Express this trip. By their appearance, I'd
say they must have slept better!
Rod (he who wrote the book on choosing and using the SCT) brought a 1984
C8 OTA (no Starbright coatings on this bad boy) mounted on a GP Clone and
lightweight tubular tripod, and was just as happy as a clam with it. I
didn't make it over to peek through, but with his reputation for knowing
SCTs, I'd have to believe that it was as good as he said.
Pat, on the other hand, came with even a bigger shocker. The absolutely
gorgeous 25" Dob he built did not come this time (remember, no trailer).
He brought a beautiful 10" f/5 he built for his son, Brandon. Very nice
scope indeed. He did bring another Dob though. Last time we were at
Chiefland, Remi Trujillo had built and brought a 4.25" (I think) scope
that was really neat. Well, Pat built himself one this time. This one is
a 4.1" Dob, and is very true in design to Pat's 25" scope. Excellently
crafted, well finished, and I did get over and take a few looks through
it. I saw M42, M51, Jupiter, and Venus. Really good views for the size
of the scope. Maybe next trip they can have a small scope shoot out with
Remi, Pat, and Jim Maye's Port-O-Dobby?
Then there were the giddy guys and the whirr in the night. One across
from me, and one directly south of him. Across from me was an alien
looking creature with mahogany legs and a green head (Oh, yeah, we
already went there, didn't we?). This time the giddy part was that
Jim Kimball actually got the mount hooked into his computer and had
it doing some pretty neat tricks. First slew to a chosen object put
the chosen object dead in the center of the field of view. I thought
we might have to get some ballast to keep Jim on the ground for the
remainder of the event. As a NON-GOTO kind of guy, I must say it was
pretty impressive. Jim continued to point and observe through the
weekend. (He did play with the lonesome little StarMaster one night
though… I guess everybody has to "slum it" once in a while,
eh?)
The other guy was our former winter resident Ken Schmidt toying with
his shiny new A/P 900 mount and the 130 f/6 he had just gotten prior
to the Fall event. Ken is still in the learning curve for equatorial
mounts, but as he has proven so many times, it will be a short curve
and he will then be setting the bar higher for the other guys! This is
truly a beautiful mount/scope combination, and they match the finish on
the scope and mount too! Ken has moved up to an observatory tent and is
quite set up for this new scope. Ken also set up his StarMaster, and I
think I saw him at it several times off and on.
The cream of the crop is a scope owned by the unknown astronomer. He
is unknown because I was so awe by the setup and scope that I forgot
to ask his name. I did get the poop on the scope though!
This is a (very hard to believe) home built Newtonian. 17.5" aperture
f/4.5, Coulter optics, and just an unbelievable amount of work and
planning. Check the pictures! His face is in one, and if you know him,
please give me a name!
(After falling asleep at the computer while writing this, I found his
name in the new "Amateur Astronomy" magazine. He is Dave Hearn)
I got a chance to play with the 6" TMB some more, and found it to be
everything I expected it to be. Awesome!
I spent some time with the 18 too, but did a lot of solar observing as
well as planetary observing with the refractor.
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Ken's AP |
Jim for scale of size |
Sliding Secondary and Focuser |
5 inch guide scope |
Yes, it is! |
Bearing and guide scope |
Jim peeking |
Tom Clarks EP case |
The upstairs case> |
EP case at focuser |
It shrunk ~ 25 |
Brandon's 10 |
I'll take my scope to go, please |
Rod and C8 |
Home-built 17.5 |
Home-built 17.5 two |
17.5 Coulter |
Proud Owner |
Jupiter with Spot - Jim Kimball
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