Joseph Miller
I read with great interest
and nostalgia your tribute to Bill Schaefer. I chanced upon it by
accident. He was a very good friend of mine during my teenage years
in the '50s, when I belonged to
he personally made the mount for me. It looks exactly identical
to your picture of the classic Schaefer mount. I still remember that
he gave me the patterns, and I took them to be cast, requesting
356-T6 aluminum as he specified. I had to machine the slip rings for
the rotating tube myself, and a wealthy amateur named Frank Grow let me
use his large lathe in his company machine shop to do it. He had
an 18-inch reflector himself. Bill was a very nice fellow, very
easy
going, and I remember many pleasant evening on Charlton Flats with him at
our summer star parties. I knew very will all the other
prominent amateurs in Southern California, such as
I still have that telescope as I originally built it nearly 50 years ago!
I taught the amateur telescope mirror making class of the LAAS starting
when I was around 15 (I ground my first mirror when I was 13, and finished
many mirrors). The 10-inch, though, is the best I ever made. Recent
interferometric tests indicate it is better than 1/40th wave. And
therein lies a story.
To collapse a lot of history into a few sentences, I became a professional
astronomer and came to the Lick Observatory right out of graduate
school. I've been here at UCSC for nearly 40 years, and just a few
weeks ago I stepped down from being Lick Director, a position I held for
14 years. A few years ago we delivered a major new instrument to the
Keck Observatory, and to align it, we needed a source of collimated light
with a beam about 10-inches in diameter. I thought my
10-inch might do quite well, so that's why we gave it an interferometric
test in our optical shop. And off it went to
http://loen.ucolick.org//Deimos/Images_deimos/current/shipping/march/3_14_02.htm
Thanks for doing that nice tribute to Bill. I really appreciated it.
Joe
Dave Holland
Your website about Bill Schaefer was sent to me by Chuck Burton in
response to a ad I had in Astromart. I have a Scheafer 12 mount that I have
owned for over ten years. Two years ago I did a face lift on it: powder coated,
new motors and wiring, and a general cleaning. I thought about selling it but
did not know what these mounts are worth, hence the ad on Astromart (which I
removed). Well, I received nothing over $2,000 so I decided to keep the mount.
I probably would kick myself if it sold anyway. I personally know Marty Germano
and Tony Hallas who own the same size mount. Whenever I bring the mount up to
Dave Holland
Rob Ratkowski
I reached you by seeing an ad
in Astromart selling a Schaefer, asking the fellow (Scott
Rcyhnovsky in OC) about his w/ him directing me to the Schaefer project.
I took a guess at you
e-dress and here you are.
I got my drive from Bill thru my brother David that knows Dick Wallace (
mirror) that knew Bill. I think I bought it around 1982-3-4, not quite
sure but I could get
an exact year w/ a little research. My mount has the 7" Byers gear
w/ dual AC sync motors. It was painted that Ford blue and took it apart
(on Maui) had it sand blasted, primed and pro painted and now is waiting for
installation at our site on Haleakala at 9955 ft. The thing about the
drive is that the counterweights for the 12.5" F6 Newt are 65 and 27 lbs
and setting up the scope
is a 2 person project.
I found the mount to be excellent for visual work and w/ practise, photography
could be done though guiding was a pain. I would think that planetary imaging
would be easier w/CCD's and shorter exposures and Registax. Haven't tried
that yet, so much to do, so little time ...........
I'll look for some of the pix w/ the 12.5
mounted, it's had to maintain film and digital files. The digital
files are easy to locate, the film negatives/slides are in the 1000's and are not
cataloged as well as the digitals.
Happy New Year
Rob
Lewis Chilton
You have a marvelous website and I read with great enthusiasm your page
about Bill Schaefer. I never knew him personally, but as a member of the Los
Angeles Astronomical Society from 1960 on, I admired him from afar and drooled
over his mounts.
I'd like to bring some historical errors to your attention. You said he
was a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Association and its predecessor,
the Excelsior Telescope Club. Not correct. The Los Angeles Astronomical
Society's predecessor was the Amaterur Telescope Makers Society of Los Angeles,
founded in Nov 1926. This was the same club - just a name change.
The Excelsior Telescope Club was founded by
I take pride in having been the LAAS historian for many years. It has a
fascinating history.
Currently, I'm documenting the history of a lesser known
Best wishes,
Lewis
Northridge
Chuck Burton
Hello - I picked
up a reference to your BSP from an ad on AstroMart . . . of all places!
Thought I'd send you a little info on my experiences with Bill and equipment he
made for me. Thanks so much for putting this Bill Schaefer site
together! I even found my name on your list of Schaefer mount owners -
along with folks that I've met or been friends with over the years. John
Sanford was a wonderful mentor for a budding young amateur astronomer like
me. My parents had NO interest in astronomy or late-night stuff.
But John always invited me to accompany him on his jaunts to "4489"
and other dark sites in the hills east of
I knew Bill when I was in high school in the 70s. He was an inspiration
to me and helped turn me in to the "equipment junkie" I am today - 35
years later! I purchased several mounts from him over the years -
one was a light duty version that he built, but it was not the "classic
style" that he
is famous for. This mount held a fine 5" f/5 refractor.
The next mount I purchased was a used one that he refurbished for me (I had a
part time job in high school and couldn't afford his larger stuff or new
stuff). This was the "7-inch" gear model. I had ground
several mirrors up to 8" in size and made some decent
"home-made" scopes with them. But with the acquisition of the 7-inch
Schaefer, I wanted a superb scope. Bill located a mirror made by Alika
Herring (an optician at Cave Optical as I recall). His mirrors were quite
sought after. This particular 10" mirror had an oddball focal length
at f/6.2 and I was offered a very good deal on it. About the same time,
the fellow who started Meade Instruments Co. (I
can't remember his name) was trying to get into the Newtonian reflector
business. He'd had a prototype fiberglass tube made that was very rigid,
but too heavy and too expensive for the mass market. This tube just
happened to be exactly the right size for my 10" f/6+ scope and the
president of Meade Instruments sold it to me for a pittance. Bill put me
together a fine scope from these components and I kept it for a few years.
Unfortunately for me, I sold the scope after getting married, having kids,
etc. Someone out there has this scope and should be quite pleased with
it!
I found that my net disposable income with a wife and kids was somewhat less
than it was when I was working part-time in high school <g>. But I
wanted to get back into astronomy again. This was in 1982. I wanted
a 16" so, I met with Bill again to see what could be done. I found
that I still
couldn't afford one of his big mounts. But, Bill had acquired a
half-done/basket case project mount from the widow of it's creator. This
gentleman died before he could finish the mount. It wasn't a
Schaefer-designed mount, but it was massive, having 3" shafts and 10"
Mathis drive gears on both axes. The equatorial head alone weighed 125
lbs. Bill and I worked out a suitable arrangement - he made a custom set
of his way cool setting circles for the mount and helped me do the rotating
rings, etc. I obtained a 16" mirror from Meade Instruments and the scope
was done.
This 16" scope was semi-portable believe it or not - that is, I needed a
"semi" to haul it around! <g>. I moved to
I moved to
Through an AstroMart ad, I was led to Scott Losmandy who is a collector of
astro gear, as well as a manufacturer of quality mounts. I was not
interested in a Losmandy mount due to the fact they don't look massive enough
for a C14 and they're high-dollar. But, Mr. Losmandy had a sed/abused
7" Schaefer equatorial mount that he had acquired and wanted to
sell. I drove to
I had seen this mount before - but that's another story. I had to
completely disassemble it and clean it up, manufacture new clutch and slip
plates, etc. But the gears are in great shape and I have the mount sitting in
my garage about ready to go. I'm currently working on an adapter plate
that will mate the C14 to the Schaefer saddle. I think this 7" mount
is solid enough to hold a C14. If not, I'll have to keep looking for a
bigger Schaefer mount for it. Nothing else will do . . .
Well, this is probably "too much information." I would be happy
to send you photos of the mounts and scopes I've had (if I can find them!) - if
you're interested of course. Just drop me a note. And thanks again
for the "digital shrine" you've created for Bill - a man who I
greatly admired and who was a great friend.
- Chuck Burton
Eric Persson
We bought two mountings as
part of a site survey project we carried out at Las Campanas Observatory,
The two identical setups
were used to measure the seeing at three potential sites for our new telescopes
at Las Campanas. The end result, after many years of planning and construction,
are the Magellan Telescopes. Take a look at www.ociw.edu,
and follow the links to the Magellan Project.
We also loaned the equipment
to a group of Mexican Astronomers who were characterizing their site at San
Padro Martir Obs in
The equipment is being returned
to service yet again -a group within The Carnegie observatories has resurrected
the gear to begin a new site survey at Las Campanas and environs, owith a view
to selecting a site for the next generation of large telescope to be situated
in
I
hope this helps,
SIncerely,
Eric
Persson
Martin C Germano
Interesting website! I
didn't know Bill until the end if the 1970's ... good to see a younger picture
of him. I made the trip from my home in
I've been looking through my
old records (purchases, invoices, etc.), and can only find dated information on
my current equipment from Bill. I have no 'third party' equipment from Bill,
almost everything I have was picked up at Bill's apartment 'workshop'. You
know, the converted carport <g>. My *first* purchase from Bill was in the
late 1970's (1978 or 1979, I think).
In the late 1970's I
purchased what Bill called his 'medium
equatorial head. The basic design of the medium head was like the pictures on
your website of the classic Schaefer mount, except it had two synchronous RA
drive motors mounted on the front box that housed the worm gear. I *believe it
had a 7" main gear of 159 teeth? Unfortunately, I had to sell the mount to
purchase some of my current equipment.
My *current* equipment
includes an 8" f5 Newtonian assembled by Bill in 1984. Bill purchased some
items for me (tube, focuser, mounting rings, primary and secondary mirrors),
and constructed some (primary mirror cell, diagonal and spider vanes). I took
delivery of the finished tube assembly in December 1984. In late 1985 or early
1986 I began to hear from amateurs in the Orange County area that Bill was
having health problems, and would be 'selling' his sand castings for the
equatorial heads and his 'business' to a local amateur.
Through the years of
visiting Bill's shop, I had seen various larger mounts he was constructing for
other amateurs, and of course had
serious 'mount fever'. I knew I would eventually like a larger telescope, and
my 'dream scope' was a 12.5" f6 Newtonian. This would of course
necessitate a larger mount. I eventually came to find that Bill was going to
sell the business to Richard Keenan, Jr, of ASTRO-TRACK Engineering. Through
skillful negotiations with my wife (promising new living room furniture and
kitchen appliances), I was able to free up money to purchase Bill's largest
equatorial head design (that I know of), what ASTRO-TRACK called the AT-120.
I *think* I purchased the
third or fourth (Tony Hallas purchased the AT-120 built just before mine) mount
made by Richard at his ASTRO-TRACK shop. Bill was still at the ASTRO-TRACK shop
helping Richard with the machining and general guidance on construction of the
mounts, and I met Bill there on several occasions. So as far as I know, Bill
had a hand in construction of at least parts of my current AT-120 mount.
My last encounter with Bill
was in 1992. During that year I was building my dream scope to go on the large
mount. I decided on a 14.5" f5 Newtonian (to be used with a Lumicon Coma
Corrector, so I would have the same approximate focal length as a 12.5" f6
Newt). Since I work exclusively 'out in the field', I wanted to save weight on
the tube assembly by using a truncated cone primary mirror, so I needed a
unique primary mirror cell. Bill was still doing small machine jobs, and
consented to make a mirror cell for me.
The last time I saw Bill was
when I picked up the cell in mid 1992.
I have images of my current
equipment at the bottom of this page::
http://home.earthlink.net/~mcgermano/philosophy.html
I purchased Bill's 'heavy
duty' tripod along with the AT-120 mount, but have since replaced the legs with
the current I-beam leg design seen in these pictures. By the way, two other
past owners of Schaefer mounts (purchased third party, I believe) are Michael
Stecker and Kim Zussman. Neither Mike nor Kim are currently active
astrophotographers, but bother have used Bill's great mounts.
I have a copy of the
ASTRO-TRACK brochure that features the Schaefer designed AT-100 and AT-120
mounts. I could scan and email you a copy if you would like. Hope this helps
some.
Marty
Martin
C Germano
http://home.earthlink.net/~mcgermano
mcgermano@earthlink.net
Tony Hallas
I have one
of the last mounts that Bill made... actually he made these in co-operation
with Keenan who was going to buy the business from Bill... Martin Germano has
the other mount that was made at this time... both are 12" mounts with
Byers gears. Since Keenan was a "military spec" machinist, these
particular mounts are probably the best that Bill ever made... there are no
high spots in the gears and the tolerances are better than .001". Over the
years I also owned a 10" and 8" Schaefer... both sold to move up to
the 12" which I still have today.
I'll send
you an image of it when I find one... I know I have a few. By the way, when
Keenan found out how much work goes into a mount for the money he sold the
business to Mark Park. I don't think he kept it, either. Dave Radosovich still
makes a few mounts with his buddies... he'll bring one up to RTMC every so
often.
Tony
Russell Sipe
You already are
working with the only resource person I could point you to: Dave Radosevich. As
you know from the www.starcruiser.com web site, I acquired my Schaefer mount at
the time I bought the Star Cruiser telescope system from Dick Wallace a few
years ago. I have not talked to Dick since buying the telescope a few years
ago. I understand he lives with his son up in
Dick Wallace
c/o Bob Jarvis
805-344-3132
What probably
sets the Star Cruiser's Schaefer mount apart from others is that, according to
Dave R's speculation, it is most likely the only Schaefer mount that has been
turned into a GOTO mount (not to mention the only Schaefter mount used in a
remotely controlled observatory).
If you want to
hear the trials and tribulations involved with making this conversion, give me
a call.
"The goodness of the
night upon you."
-- Othello Act 1 Scene 2
Russell Sipe