Bill Schaefer Project

Bill Schaefer mounts were the “gold standard” for astrophotography for much of Southern California from the late 1950s into the nineties. In his early years Bill was active in amateur telescope making organizations and was a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Association and its predecessor, the Excelsior Club. He began making telescopes for sale in the early 50s, and by 1957 he was equipping his scopes with illuminated finders specifically to provide tracking during long exposures. Over the years, these finders grew into true guide scopes with substantial apertures, and the larger telescopes necessitated more substantial mountings. To my knowledge, the largest telescope completed by Bill was a 22" aperture Cassegrain.

The users of Schaefer equipment reads like a "who’s who" of late twentieth century astrophotography: John Sanford, Fr. Ron Royer, Tony Hallas, Martin Germano, Chuck Edmonds, among many others. Many of these instruments are still in active service. During his lifetime he received honors from organizations such as the Riverside Telescope Makers, and there is an asteroid named for him.

Peter Abraham's History of the Telescope and Binocular, lists Bill Schaefer as one of "100 obscure American Telescope Makers and Designers of the 20th Century". The website you have before you represents an attempt to "rescue" Bill from obscurity and to keep his legacy alive. A substantial amount of archival material exists from the Schaefer estate. This includes photographs of Bill and his equipment, receipts and records of his customers, and photographs taken with his telescopes. There are still gaps, however, especially about the earlier part of his career. This page contains a selection of the earliest photographs in the archive, and there is a link here to a sample of astrophotographs which he held in his private collection. Finally, there is a very incomplete list of Schafer telescope owners, past and present. My objective is to complete this list in so far as possible and to include such information as apertures, dates, whether active or inactive, etc. I would be greatly interested in any and all information concerning Schaefer instruments - photographs, reminisces, etc. - that others might have and want to share.