A Respectable Middle Age
As Comet Halley receded into the depths of the solar system in 1987, CAS celebrated its 40th anniversary. Predictably, community interest in astronomy and in CAS took a downturn. Without the internal problems of 1980, the club didn't reach the edge of extinction. Instead, it recovered with a new vigor. When viewed from several years later, there were perhaps three reasons why the club recovered quickly.
First, the club
moved its meeting place from an almost downtown location at Battelle[1] to
Perkins Observatory near
Second, it was a period during which Tom Burns served as perennial Vice President of the club. The club Vice President has traditionally been responsible for programming. Tom expanded the job into including public relations and publicity. At first this was limited to persistent and well-directed press releases. By 1988, it led to a weekly astronomy column in the Columbus Dispatch. It did the club no harm at all that for a while each column ended ‘Tom Burns is Vice President of the Columbus Astronomical Society'.
The third factor was that club members diversified their interests. One group focused on grinding mirrors and using them to build Dobsonian telescopes. Others became adept at using the Perkins telescope or a 14-inch Celestron that was housed in the old Schmidt dome. The improved computer technology of the 90s introduced still other interests.
It was inevitable that Comet Halley attracted a lot of new members. It was equally inevitable that the membership count would drop dramatically a year later. Then-President Mark Bungart commented that he had been President for one of the most precipitous declines in club membership ever followed by a fast recovery. Even so, the downturn never approached the near extinction levels of earlier years. Membership dropped to about 40 in 1987 but bounced back to 100 or so in 1988.
The late 80’s offered the club a few different chances to attract public interest. One was a perhelic opposition[2] of Mars in 1988. At that time, CAS and OSU were holding discussions on a renewed relationship[3] involving Perkins Observatory. Club President Mark Bungart and Treasurer Chuck Gulker convinced OSU astronomy department chairman Eugene Capriotti that a Mars public program could attract public interest. The result was the most ambitious Mars program for the public CAS had offered in at least 30 years[4].
Opposition occurred on September 28 but the nearly full Moon was only a few degrees away from the planet. Mark Bungart, Bob Bunge, Tom Burns and Brenda Coulter organized three consecutive nights of public viewing at Perkins for the moonless evenings of October 13 - 15. Hundreds of people each night viewed Mars through both the Schottland 32-inch telescope and a collection of CAS scopes on the lawn. (Yes, it really was clear three nights in a row).
The observatory parking lot was used only for telescopes –- guests walked from the golf course or the seminary. These three nights showed the observatory’s owners that CAS was a reliable partner. Regular support of public programs over the intervening years led to a solid relationship between the club and Perkins.
Another idea was
well received by the public but executed only once. Bob Bunge and Jay Elkes
decided to take a page from the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers for a nicely
timed eclipse of the Moon on August 16, 1989. The eclipse fell early enough to
attract public attention on an evening when the city of
If CAS came into the 1980s on the brink of extinction, it came into the 1990s on as firm a basis as it had ever seen. The club turned Perkins Observatory into a long term (and hopefully permanent) meeting site. Members took projects on the road and far afield. These projects brought opportunity to those involved and stability to the club as a whole.
Organizationally, the structure of the club as represented on paper was still reflected by the constitution and bylaws from the early 80s, but the distribution of work shifted in subtle ways. The club trustees, once the group that drove the club, now met infrequently. Most activity was left to the officers in general and the president in particular.
This usually meant that elections were symbolic ‑‑ finding one person to become president was a challenge, and those found were encouraged to run for the permitted second term. One article in Prime Focus, only partly in humor, suggested that the president's oath of office was 'well, if nobody else will take the job...'. As a result, Steve Staley, and Chuck Bruckelmeyer each filled two consecutive terms. Mark Bungart served four years –- 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1991. Bob Bunge filled the job in 1989.
By contrast, finding people to run for trustee was easy ‑‑ it was a convenient way to avoid running for office. By getting elected to a four year term as trustee, people were assured of four years they wouldn't be solicited for jobs as officers. Officers and trustees did meet on occasion, but officers were doing the day-to-day work.
The club met its mission as an astronomy advocacy group by implementing a number of special telescope projects. Telescope making workshops were organized at Highbanks metro parks and met with success. For a while, CAS purchased Dobsonian telescopes from vendors and resold them as a service to shorten delivery times. This idea by Chuck Gulker was a real service to new telescope owners.
When the Special
Wish Foundation[5] came
looking for information on telescopes for a dying fourth grader, CAS got
actively involved. Coulter Optics, to its great credit, moved the order for a
10-inch telescope to the front of a long line and delivered the telescope in
two days[6].
Club members donated eyepieces, books, and other materials. Mark Bungart and
Chuck Gulker delivered everything to the young owner in
At the 1989
Christmas party, Tom Burns announced plans that would allow CAS members to
participate in a project organized through
For those wanting observing locations in Ohio, 1990 saw a member’s packet with directions to all sorts of semi‑dark, dark, and really dark observing sites. Sites were scattered at different distances from town. Each had its own champion and its own set of access rules. In short, there were a lot of places to observe but not much agreement on them.
As the spring of 1991 rolled around, life got complicated for the people on the eclipse cruise. Because the trip was longer in both duration and distance than the ship's usual route, a different set of safety laws applied. As a result, the ship was technically overbooked.
The cruise line
could and did apply for a waiver to the applicable regulations. Since the ship
would be sailing in Mexican waters,
Eventually,
another ship was pulled into the picture and nobody was left behind. Several
CAS families made the trip ‑‑ the Burns family, the Archinal
family, and the Cirker family. Individuals going to the eclipse included Jay
Elkes, Roy Meyers, and Walt Mitchell. From the ships off the base of the
The
This led
to a number of good slide shows, but perhaps the most visible evidence of the
trip was a telescope named
Bill
Herbert had previously made and provided an 8” f4.3 mirror and a 2” focuser.
The difference between those components and
Ron wrote[9] that he used design ideas from a number of ATMs including Thane Bopp, Tom Burns, Dick Suiter and Bob Bunge. The mirror box was designed to hold all the optics and fit on most plane’s overhead compartment. When stored, the truss tubes fit in the tripod legs, leaving only two pieces to transport.
May 10, 1994
offered another eclipse and another travel opportunity. This time the objective
was an annular eclipse centered near
Many members of both the CAS and the public benefited by a fund raising project Perkins Observatory did relative to the eclipse. After arranging with marketing connections to both TV channel 4 and Buckeye Optical, the observatory bought and resold tens of thousands of pairs of solar‑safe mylar eclipse glasses. The glasses, supported by talks about eclipses at nearly every school in the area, generated about $82,000 for the observatory.
No longer CAS Vice President, Tom Burns had become a very proactive director for the observatory. Instead of an empty august place for astronomers to inhabit, the observatory did hundreds of programs a year for school groups, scout groups, and the general public. Many of these people bought eclipse glasses, and some of them eventually joined or at least 'hung out' with CAS. Although the clubs core group was still a couple dozen active observers, total membership stayed stable at over 100 members.
In the mid 1990s, the club could be characterized as a collection of small special interest groups all of whom agreed to pay dues. The telescope-making group continued without any support from the club. A second group used a CCD camera to start taking photos, occasionally through the observatory's 32-inch telescope. Another group acted as volunteers for observatory programs, and a fourth supported a remote dome that originally supported a Schmidt camera and had been refitted with a Celestron C14.
The C14 was an area of ongoing cooperation between the
observatory and the club. For a long time, the observatory had a Schmidt camera
housed in its own dome about a hundred yards behind the main building. By 1990,
About that time, a gentleman named Calvin Ide was looking to donate his 14-inch Celestron in exchange for tax benefits. He first talked to CAS. In the early 80s, the club had obtained status as a tax-exempt organization. Without a good understanding of the laws involved, the club had let the status lapse.
When CAS could not provide the write-off Ide was looking for, he offered the telescope to Ohio Wesleyan in 1991. The university accepted the telescope and put it in the newly emptied Schmidt dome.
Eventually, CAS members who met certain time in club and experience requirements were allowed to get keys and have access to the C14. Consequently, the club felt it appropriate and advisable to involve itself in the well being of the telescope and its dome.
Early in 1994, the observatory hired a contractor to put a rubberized waterproof seal on the main dome. The bulk of the cost was paid for from the earlier sale of solar eclipse glasses. The Schmidt dome needed similar attention. At the time, the C14 in the dome was primarily being used by a small but active group of CAS members. The company that had coated the main dome quoted a price of $8000 to do the same for the Schmidt dome.
Financially, CAS had a large (for the club) amount of money in the bank. The healthy financial picture had come about from a number of causes[10]. Donated items, mostly mirrors, lenses and telescope parts, had been auctioned off to members. This had the effect of making the club's assets more liquid and establishing a value for it. A substantial amount of money had also been raised through the solar eclipse trip in 1991. Other money making projects had also done reasonably well.
That something needed to be done to protect the C14 against weather damage is unquestioned. At one of the club meetings, the club voted to offer $2000 toward the repair of the Schmidt dome if the observatory would provide or raise the rest.
The observatory advisory committee, which needed to approve
this action, was composed of executives from both Ohio Wesleyan and
Even with the dome intact, there was plenty of work to do. Much of the interior of the dome had badly deteriorated and the C14 itself was in need of attention. The telescope became an ongoing project for a number of club members. To help fund it, club members who wanted access paid small key and annual access fees.
By the late 1980s, personal computers were common enough that many members owned them. Prime Focus had been published using computers since 1980, but astronomy support programs started to proliferate. In one meeting at Smith Lab[11], a wide variety of computers and programs vied for attention. After that, the "what's new in computers" theme showed up more or less regularly at CAS meetings.
Improvements in computer technology made a dramatic impact on amateur astronomy in the mid 1990s, and on some club projects as well. Four areas that saw particular impact were computer portability, improved databases, CCD imaging and the expansion of the Internet.
The big impact of portable computers at a price individuals could afford was telescope automation. This automation took a variety of forms, some of which society members were quick to get involved with.
Under computer control, stepper motors could be used to provide tracking control for a telescope. Dan Grieser used this concept to write a program that automated pointing the Perkins observatory 32-inch Schottland telescope.
To locate targets, the computer obtained RA and Dec information from a CD-ROM, and dug out the information with a program called Guide. With its CD database, Guide had access to virtually every catalog the telescope could use. Guide's developer ‑‑ Bill Gray ‑‑ came to a CAS meeting to show how it could be used.
About the same time, CCD cameras became inexpensive enough for individuals to build. Astronomy magazines provided plans, and CAS members began using them to take photos through both the C14 and the Schottland telescope. Chuck Bruckelmeyer sought and obtained approval to buy a CCD kit, then essentially disappeared with the parts until he had built it to his satisfaction. The fine result of this work is still seeing use today.
Internet expansion of the 1990s meant that photos could be transmitted around the world in a matter of moments. Historic pictures from the Hubble Space telescope or amateur photos of comets became easily accessible. CAS set itself up as a distribution source for IAU circulars[12] – any member with an email address could get quick postings of comet and supernova data.
Another effect of
Internet was the availability of the World Wide Web. In 1996, vice president
Bryan Greer built a web page for CAS and Bob Martino wrote one for Perkins
observatory. One of the more interesting links on the CAS page connected to the
Astronomical Society of New South Wales (
The CCD group and the C14 group were but two examples of unofficial special interest groups that evolved as spin-offs to the club at large. Perhaps the most successful of these was the barrel walkers group.
Although the 1980s made it possible to buy sizeable mirrors cheaply, basic economics hadn't changed. People who wanted the best possible optics for the lowest possible price had to make the mirrors themselves – some people simply preferred to do their own mirror grinding. Typically, these telescopes were Newtonian reflectors on Dobsonian mounts. The club held a couple telescope-making workshops but didn't do much more officially. Nonetheless, the process of making rather than buying a mirror had come back into fashion.
About 1989, Bob Bunge (at the time club president) encouraged Bill Herbert to set up a mirror-making workshop in the Herbert basement. Others were encouraged to come, and 'Saturdays at Bill's' became a regular activity for many club members even years later. Its success came from Bill Herbert, who had made several of his own mirrors and provided advice to newcomers.
One such newcomer was Candy Zarr. Candy first learned about the observatory, then the club, and finally the telescope-making group. With Bill Herbert's counsel, she made a 6 inch mirror, built a telescope around it, then decorated it with her own artistic skills. To the club's benefit, she served as vice president in 1995 and president in 1996.
The 90’s saw a dramatic change to the observatory itself. During the 1980s, there would be one public night a month where an OSU staff member would give a brief talk and a grad student would find the object under discussion in the telescope. With Tom Burns no longer a club officer but director of the observatory, public programs happened almost every weekend night.
The format of public nights had changed as well. CAS was encouraged to have its members set up telescopes on the front lawn to support the public programs. A tour that included a history of the observatory was added, and CAS members occasionally helped give that as well.
Eventually, many observatory programs had several CAS volunteers helping. Vic Wolfe, Candy Zarr, Steve Staley. Vern Hovland and Mark Watson were a few among several members who regularly set up telescopes outside. Jay Elkes, Rebecca Olson, Jim Gauldin, Grant Leffingwell, Erin Shea and Mike Godwin often helped inside.
In 1996, an exhibit area was added in the basement, funded by the remainder of the eclipse glasses money from 1994. CAS was offered a chance to set up an exhibit but took no action. The only thing that came out of it was a club bulletin board.
These changes weren't for the sake of change itself. The observatory had been tasked with generating some of its own support funding. In 1996, the observatory started charging admission to the public. CAS members contributed by providing time and effort in support of these programs.
Another observatory project in that time period was renovating the outside entryway. The original bricks had seen better days, and the observatory decided to turn their replacement into a fundraiser. For $100, a brick would be carved with the name of the donor's choice. Dozens of CAS members paid for bricks for themselves or others. By taking up a collection, the club itself bought bricks in memory of recently departed long time members Jane Gann and Roy Meyers[13]. In 1996, the club created a Jane Gann award for exceptional service to the club and gave it to Bill Herbert.
The interactions between the observatory and the club did hit the occasional raw nerve. At one CAS meeting, the club was asked if it would consider moving its meetings to a weeknight. The regular second-Saturday nights meant that the observatory had to settle for seven weekend public nights instead of eight -- the ticket sales from which might mean a couple thousand dollars of income.
Reaction from individual club members varied dramatically. Most expressed a preference not to change nights and left it at that. A few interpreted the request as the first step to ousting the club from the observatory, and therefore a threat. It would be an understatement to say that a spirited discussion followed.
The interpretation of this as a threat to oust the club was almost certainly in error. A few club members were collectively donating hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours a year to the observatory. The club as a whole had grown to the point where the list of members published in the January 1997 Prime Focus had over 190 names. The observatory dropped the issue instantly.
Although individual members and small groups headed to all parts of the world, the club itself did a lot of things in Perkins. As it did so, activities previously run at Metroparks disappeared or took new form.
Naturalists at the Metro Parks in the 1980s had personal interest in astronomy. When they moved on, their replacements weren't enthusiastic about after dark activities. Park policy had always been to close at sunset, but there had been exceptions including CAS programs.
The huge turnout at Slate Run to view Comet Halley in 1986 undoubtedly alarmed park management. Although thousands happily saw the comet, thousands more were turned away after spending hours snarled in traffic. The park's concern was that the unhappy people would have longer memories when it came to voting. Eventually even the Perseid meteor watch, an annual event from 1958, was abandoned[14].
The Perseid watch
didn’t fade away all at once. The last few events were run at
Another side
effect of the increased activity at Perkins was a diminished involvement with
the Richland Astronomical Society and their Rupp Observatory near
In the place of outside programs, the club tried once a year or so to invite people well known to amateur astronomy to visit. John Dobson came once[15] and offered to come again for a telescope making workshop (this wasn't pursued). He attracted a large attendance at Ohio Wesleyan from the general public, then talked to the astronomy community at Perkins.
Supernova hunter
Bob Evans[16] came
from
Another typical
activity of the time was an annual summer star party in conjunction with a
local business. Chuck Gulker worked to arrange events at the Map Store in
Even so, it was time to make a more visible presence in the community. The club went to COSI for astronomy day in 1996 and on a person-to-person level established contacts there, some of whom even joined the club. By the end of the year, creating more involvement with the public in general and with new members in particular was a large agenda item with the newly elected officers.
1997 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the club and provided a number of unusual opportunities. Early in the year, Comet Hale-Bopp offered the opportunity to attract a large audience. It had been discovered so far out in its orbit that there was plenty of time to generate public interest, and remained bright long enough to be naked eye visible for months after perihelion. The club and the observatory teamed up to show the comet to thousands[19].
At the January
1997 meeting, Gary Kaster of American Electric Power visited the club to
describe the company’s attempt to restore land in eastern
For a dark sky site that was less primitive, CAS negotiated with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to use a site at Conkle’s Hollow in Hocking Hills. With appropriate arrangements, members could take advantage of dark skies all night.
Over the summer months, there were a couple successive opportunities to view an occultation of Saturn. A nationwide effort had been made to encourage people to videotape the event with timings. The first time, several people attempted to do this with the Schottland telescope and – because the dome blocked the time signals – never got the videocamera running. On the second try a much smaller group ignored timings but got the disappearance on tape.
Fifty years after the club’s start, many issues existed that would have looked familiar to the members of 1947.
Where do we
observe? Perkins provided a good place to meet, but it wasn't the dark sky site
some members wanted. AEP’s
How do we attract new members? Comet Hyakutake in 1996 and Hale-Bopp in 1997 made a fortuitous appearance bringing astronomy in general and the club in particular to public attention. Programs to see the comets were held both at and away from Perkins. At the end of 1997, the club had over 200 members -- a third of them new. Many had joined as a consequence of the comets. How many would remain after the renewal cycle is yet to be seen.
What do we do at meetings? Club meetings covered a wide range from talks by professional astronomers, to visits to other observatories, to basics of using a telescope. Meetings were directed toward the large percentage of new members.
Where else should we go? The club made two visits to COSI, did an in-town program for Hale-Bopp, and started to use the newly acquired AEP observing site.
How do we keep track of what’s going on? Prime Focus continued to be published on a regular basis, thanks primarily to the efforts of long-serving editor Jeff Canter.
How do we catch up on our sleep? Still no answer to that one.
CAS celebrated its fiftieth year trying to shake off a respectable middle age. At club meetings, subject matter focused on basics for new members. Outside the meetings members had access to a broad spectrum of tools, technologies, and activities. Between the C14, the CCD camera, Perkins, and a variety of dark sky observing sites club members headed for the second fifty years with resources that would hardly have been imagined ten years earlier.
[1] For many
years, CAS met at Battelle’s main office on
[2] Because of the eccentricity of Mars orbit and the time between oppositions, perhelic oppositions occur every 15 to 17 years and give dramatically better views.
[3] CAS helped Perkins on its public programs in the 1950s when the original 69-inch telescope was there.
[4] On
September 6-7 1956, CAS showed Mars to an estimated 1500 people at the McMillin
observatory on the
[5] The Special Wish Foundation attempts to satisfy last wishes of dying children.
[6] See June, 1990 Prime Focus.
[7] Arguing
would have done no good.
[8] The eclipse was one of the longest of the century. Earth was close to aphelion, the moon close to perigee, and the Sun close to zenith.
[9] See the
Partial Bibliography for ‘A Scope Called
[10] A substantial note of thanks is owed to Chuck Gulker, who served several terms as treasurer and used them to put the club’s finances in order.
[11] Before his death, Dr. Walt Mitchell made access to the planetarium at Smith lab available to the club about once a year. The meeting referenced happened in March 1991.
[12] This service began in August 1996.
[13] Per Prime
Focus, Jane first joined on October 1953.
[14]
[15] Dobson visited on April 20, 1990.
[16] Evans visited June 10, 1992.
[17] Crawford visited in May 1996.
[18] Kaiser showed this in November 1996.
[19] Ironically, one person who got turned away when the crowd got too large was the president of Ohio Wesleyan.
[20] The site
is in