After what was nearly 40 years I decided to return to an old hobby of mine, Astronomy. While I’ve always maintained an interest, I’ve not owned a telescope in many years. My last telescope was a 1970 Celestron C8. The Celestron C8 is an eight-inch SCT (Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope). This was a telescope my Dad bought when I was in my early teens. It was preceded by a typical inexpensive department store refractor. I think it may have been a Tasco. The Celestron was an amazing telescope in its day. For this teenager, it was an absolute wonder. They are still being manufactured to this day and are a very popular choice for amateur astronomers. Of course, the latest iterations have much-improved optics and electronics.
At the time we were living in Fort Lee, NJ. Fort Lee is just across the river from New York City. We lived in a high-rise apartment building, The Crystal House, on the 6th floor. Our balcony wrapped around the southeast corner of the building where we had a spectacular view of the New York City skyline. In the 1970’s the pollution around the city was so bad there often appeared to be an orange-brown shroud over the city. Thank the EPA for cleaning that up.
Even with all of the pollution, both air, and light, I was delighted with what I was able to see from my corner view of the cosmos. Orion rising in the evening with Sirius the Dog Star chasing him was always a treat. Views of the major planets and moon were frequent targets. At the time we had a Konica T3 SLR (single lens reflex) camera which I put to good use recording some fuzzy images of the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn. I recall making some attempts at brighter DSOs (deep-sky objects) but not sure I ever got very much. Maybe a shot of M13…sure wish I still had those negatives.
Back in the 70’s the only way to capture images was on good old-fashioned film. The most common film of choice was Kodak Tri-X. There were other films like Panatomic-X and even infrared films and other scientific films that my Dad and I played with.
However, with the higher ASA (400) of Tri-X, it was beneficial to use for astrophotography to reduce exposure time. I would develop the film myself and print my images. Often pushing the ASA to 1600 or greater at the expense of more graininess in the image. Sort of the equivalent of noise in today’s digital cameras. Pushing is kind of equivalent to the gain setting in modern CMOS cameras.
While I fondly remember going through the process of developing my film and making prints I am sure the chemicals may have shortened my life by a few months…I’m kidding…I think.
I remember spending hours on my balcony peering through that telescope. Back then there was no GO-TO function where I could just plug in the object I wanted to see and immediately be rewarded with a view in my eyepiece. Don’t get me wrong, if a GO-TO function was available at the time I would have used it. Instead, I would look up the RA (right ascension) and declination of the object, match my telescope’s setting circles to those numbers and if I was properly aligned I would eventually be able to locate it. I also learned to “star hop”. This involved locating a known star and literally hopping visually to the next known star and then drawing imaginary lines in the sky to locate objects. I am afraid that I am woefully out of practice these days and that skill must be relearned. When I would find the object I would make notes and sometimes sketch what I saw often using a tape recorder to record my thoughts…oh how I would love to have those sketches and recordings now, to both laugh and reminisce about.
As I said, in the beginning, I had a Celestron C8 which is an 8″ or 203.2 mm diameter objective telescope. Just like the one Spock is admiring in the picture. The larger the diameter of the objective, aka that big piece of glass at the front of the telescope, the greater the amount of light the scope can gather. Think of it like when you cup your hand behind your ear to hear better. You’re increasing the amount the sound that is captured. Now think about your eyes and how small your pupil is…the average pupil is between 2 to 4mm. So anything larger can be quite an improvement. Here are two simple drawings to illustrate the concepts.
Well, unfortunately, that wonderful telescope of my youth suffered a horrible fate. It remained with my parents after I left home at 18 years of age. When I was around 45 my Dad gave me the scope. It sat idle for several years as I had no time for hobbies due to my job, 2 daughters to raise, and life’s many other responsibilities.
At around 50 I decided to open the old green metal chest where it had sat idly, waiting for starlight for nearly 30 years. Beyond the musty smell lay what was once a proud 8″ Celestron SCT. The orange had faded significantly and the cast iron forks had a tinge of brown. Along with the musty smell was the strong smell of stale tobacco smoke. Both of my parents were heavy smokers for much of the time the scope lay dormant in their apartment. Upon removing it from the trunk and placing on a table for closer examination I immediately noticed how soft the paint was on the tube and the forks. I decided then and there that I needed to rescue this scope. That was when it began to suffer its second horrible fate.
With little to go on and a few hex wrenches, I embarked on the foolish task of restoring my beloved telescope. My first mistake was removing the corrector plate without making a note of what those little paper shims meant or where they were positioned. The orientation of the big lens up front was important and those shims were vital to getting it back to where it needed to be.
The corrector plate is a thin piece of glass at the front of the telescope. After removing the corrector plate I began the process of attempting to remove the old paint. This was my second mistake. I should have just left it alone. After several frustrating attempts, I eventually gave up and put it away once again. Ultimately I donated the scope to a local astronomy club in the hope that someone with greater knowledge, desire, and patience would be able to bring it back to some level of glory. That’s where this chapter of “getting back into it” ends.
I will continue in my next post with my journey back to astronomy and where I am now with this hobby.
