A blast from the past
Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 12:46 am
I unearthed some old not very good quality prints that were taken in April 1986. During the apparition of Halley's comet, I went and stayed at Mt Tamborine Observatory in southeast Queensland, belonging to my mentor, the late Arthur Page for about 6 weeks. Other young astronomers also mentored by Arthur were also staying there.
By this time I had graduated with a degree in physics and moved to Canberra to work at the Australian National University. So, I made the 1200km journey to stay at the observatory.
Three years earlier, Arthur had given us permission to lay a large slab next to the observatory complete with weatherproof power posts. Four of us had bolted down piers and mounts, others set up temporarily on tripods either in the centre or out on the grass.
This is my 6"f7 but on the second incarnation mounting,
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This is me in the observatory with Arthur Page sitting at the console. His telescope was a Coulter 12 inch f15 Cassegrain equipped with a photoelectric photometer-unique arrangement for a private observatory in the 1970's and 80's. Arthur did a lot of work on Be type flare stars. He collaborated with other professional astronomers.
On a typical run, Arthur could use his 12" to monitor three visible wavelengths, the 74" telescope at Mt Stromlo would monitor IR and the Parkes 64m radio telescope would monitor the radio spectrum.
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Out on the slab, I am working (ok posing during daylight) with my 6" f7 reflector. The square galvanised iron thing is a weatherproof box that I could drag over the pier and mount and bolt down to the slab with some 1/2" Loxon anchors to protect the mount from weather with theOTA removed. During observing, I had shelves that could be inserted in the structure to hold control electronics. In those days it was all 240V synchronous motors, variable frequency oscillators etc.
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On a windy winter night, I could place the controller in the base of the box, remove the upper shelf and sit on the lower shelf shielded from the icy cold winter winds during long hours of manual guiding required for our 1980's film based astrophotography.
My friends, and I use the term "friends" loosely, used to refer to my weather cover as the thunderbox, Thunderbox is an Australian colloquial term for a farmyard outdoor pit toilet. Personally, I think they were jealous because they had to stand or sit out in the icy cold wind while I was sitting in relative comfort whilst peering down the crosshair eyepieces continuously guiding out the 170 arc second periodic error of the cheap and nasty Meade drive fitted to that telescope.
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In this series, the group are setting up a big night of observing. In addition to dimmable red lighting, a spotlight was mounted on the observatory to facilitate setting up or packing up after dark.
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Finally, here I am using Arthurs Nikon 25x125 binoculars. Arthur "salvaged" these off a Japanese battleship that was surrendered to his unit at the end of WWII. The binoculars weighed about 12kg very heavy to hold and so the mounting was important.
At the base of the pier is a railway wheel (bogie) and bearing. The wheel was so heavy it just sat there under it's own weight and didn't need to be bolted down.
The entire pier / post could rotate 360 deg as the alt az movement. The altitude axis is in the housing welded to the top of the post. The shaft points at the observers neck just below the ear. The binoculars look quite out of balance. If you look carefully, attached to the other end of the ALT shaft is a large counterweight, almost hidden behind my belly which perfectly balanced the binoculars.
The resulting arrangement allowed the observer to walk around the bogie for easy azimuth scanning. As you scan up or down, the eyepieces stay with your eyes while you stand in a comfortable upright position, because the whole arrangement is rotating around the shaft that's aligned with the pivot axis of your head about 2 inches below the ears. It was set at the average height of the observers group. Even though I was at the tall end of this group, I only needed to bend my knees slightly and it was still very comfortable to use.
regards
Joe
By this time I had graduated with a degree in physics and moved to Canberra to work at the Australian National University. So, I made the 1200km journey to stay at the observatory.
.
.
.
On a typical run, Arthur could use his 12" to monitor three visible wavelengths, the 74" telescope at Mt Stromlo would monitor IR and the Parkes 64m radio telescope would monitor the radio spectrum.
.
.
.
Out on the slab, I am working (ok posing during daylight) with my 6" f7 reflector. The square galvanised iron thing is a weatherproof box that I could drag over the pier and mount and bolt down to the slab with some 1/2" Loxon anchors to protect the mount from weather with the
.
On a windy winter night, I could place the controller in the base of the box, remove the upper shelf and sit on the lower shelf shielded from the icy cold winter winds during long hours of manual guiding required for our 1980's film based astrophotography.
.
.
.
In this series, the group are setting up a big night of observing. In addition to dimmable red lighting, a spotlight was mounted on the observatory to facilitate setting up or packing up after dark.
Finally, here I am using Arthurs Nikon 25x125 binoculars. Arthur "salvaged" these off a Japanese battleship that was surrendered to his unit at the end of WWII. The binoculars weighed about 12kg very heavy to hold and so the mounting was important.
At the base of the pier is a railway wheel (bogie) and bearing. The wheel was so heavy it just sat there under it's own weight and didn't need to be bolted down.
The entire pier / post could rotate 360 deg as the alt az movement. The altitude axis is in the housing welded to the top of the post. The shaft points at the observers neck just below the ear. The binoculars look quite out of balance. If you look carefully, attached to the other end of the ALT shaft is a large counterweight, almost hidden behind my belly which perfectly balanced the binoculars.
The resulting arrangement allowed the observer to walk around the bogie for easy azimuth scanning. As you scan up or down, the eyepieces stay with your eyes while you stand in a comfortable upright position, because the whole arrangement is rotating around the shaft that's aligned with the pivot axis of your head about 2 inches below the ears. It was set at the average height of the observers group. Even though I was at the tall end of this group, I only needed to bend my knees slightly and it was still very comfortable to use.
Joe