My interest in astronomy began about 35 years ago when I saw the pictures of the moon and planets from the space program.  My first telescope was a 60mm Sears refractor, a Christmas gift from my wife not long after we were married in 1973.  Small, faint, fuzzy images moving through the field of view led only to frustration.  Living in a small town in Kansas and having no one with better equipment or more experience to help, my astronomical pursuits ended in disappointment.

Years later while going to medical school in Kansas City, my interest in wildlife photography had led to the point of acquiring a long focal length telephoto lens.  The Celestron C90 was a wonderful discovery, not only for it's price but for visual work as a spotting scope.   After observing wildlife, hot air balloons and airplanes at several miles distance, I turned the scope toward the heavens one night to view a bright object that caught my eye.  I was astounded to see Saturn in all it's splendors.  A beautiful jewel set in it's perfect rings!  The view appeared so good it seemed fake.  Once again, I was hooked on astronomy!

I encountered "Astronomy" and "Sky and Telescope" magazines.  I devoured every page and scrutinized every ad in each issue.  The wonderful pictures from readers and the beautiful equipment became objects of reverence for me.  I dreamed of getting a Celestron 8" with the fork mount and Sidereal drive.  So I did.  The visual results made the C90 pale in comparison, although attempts at astrophotography were still a bitter disappointment.  Film hypering, deep sky filters, fast and fine grained films, and other of today's advancements were unheard of then.  Much study led to the gradual accumulation of an off-axis guider, illuminated reticle, dual axis drive corrector, declination drive, and a camera with inter-changeable viewing screens and finders and mirror lock up, and all the necessary accessories for proper long exposure astrophotography.  After long hours of attempts, I finally achieved polar alignment after installing a permanent outdoor pier.  Endless hours of attempts at photographing deep sky objects yielded at best, poorly focused and poorly guided faint images.

 

I know that most astrophotographers around my age have experienced much of the same frustrations and progression.  So to make a very long story a bit shorter....
I read more and more books on the subject, and learned more from the magazines.  It became obvious a higher quality drive was required.  About that time Byers came out with the "812-TR" mount _ a beautiful, high precision piece of equipment.  Many more hours of planning yielded rings to mount the C8, weights and bars for proper balancing, a large portable pier with leveling feet, and all the equipment necessary to integrate all components into a working system.  With this combination, I began getting MY FIRST worthwhile results.  However, it was now a major effort to just get the scope out and aligned and ready to use!  As usual, the solution to one problem resulted in several new problems.

It became painfully obvious a permanent pier, properly aligned and protected from the elements and theft was required.  Further study resulted in the best solution being an Ash Dome.  After years of accumulating the information from the manufacturers shown in the magazines, I had slowly formed an image of the ultimate "dream" telescope.  The best available equipment appeared to be a Celestron C14 on an AstroWorks 1024 German Equatorial Mount, housed in a 4 meter Ash Dome.  Truly an arrangement to be dreamed of!

The year was 1983.  My dome was going in the backyard of our Blue Springs, Mo., home (a suburb of K.C.), Richard Olson of Ash Dome was there to put it in, and my family was there helping to build the walls.  I had just ordered the 24.5", f6.2 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope from AstroWorks.  Now that was and still is my "dream" scope.  The SCT was to be completed by the time Halley's Comet was visible around March, 1986, but the deadline was missed by several months.  As is usual with such projects, the proposed period of about 1 year to allow completion of the system turned into almost 3 years due to unavoidable delays in fabricating the optics, especially the Schmidt corrector plate.

  My father unloading the walls

  Richard Olson, Ash Dome, at our Blue Springs home.

Our dome in Blue Springs, Missouri (suburbia).

1983 Blue Springs      New dome, new baby son, Michael David (Mikey)

It became obvious that such an instrument deserved better than the light polluted location in Kansas City, so I joined a medical practice in rural Arkansas and packed up my Ash Dome, my wife and our infant son and moved to darker skies.  We set up the dome and housekeeping in Helena, Arkansas in the fall of 1984. Richard Olson of Ash Dome was, again, there to assist us with the dome.  Some good things happened in Arkansas.  Our telescope was delivered to us in 1986 just shortly before the birth of our second child, Emily.

2nd dome installation, 2nd baby.  We're going to have to quit moving!

Jim Riffle drove our precious cargo from White Rock, N.M. to Helena, Ar.

Sandra chats with Jim while Mikey helps him keep track of all the tiny screws.

Gary Capps flew in to assist us!

 

 Jim Riffle and Jim McMillan                                              First Light

     Gary Capps, Jim Riffle, Mike Sisk.  A job well done!

            

Rick Freeland, friend and world class bbq chef kept us well fed.  JR takes a well-deserved rest.

                                 

 

Just about got it aligned for Dad.

 

                                                      Dreams realized.

                                       An arial view of our property in Arkansas.

  By 1988, even after great "seeing" and some world class pictures, it was painfully obvious we had to move back home to Kansas to be closer to the families.  So we called our old friend Richard of Ash Dome again to tell him the good news and told him we'd meet him in the "sunflower" state this time.  This would be Richard's 3rd time he has disassembled and reassembled our Ash dome and Jim Riffle's 2nd time he has assembled the 24" scope for us.  Through the moves, through the summer heat of greater than 100 degrees, the winters of sub zero cold, ice and hail storms, wind and severe thunderstorms, and years of use, the dome and scope have performed flawlessly, a tribute to the men and their companies, Ash Dome and AstroWorks, and their products.

Please continue our history on the History II page.

 

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