The FCAS Story - Page 1 of 5

The Stamford Museum, which is the site of the Stamford observatory, was founded in 1936. Almost immediately astronomy became one of its interests. An astronomy club called "The Stamford Astronomers" was formed, and a Spitz model "A" planetarium was installed. The planetarium dome was made by members, using wood slats for the frame and cardboard as the projection surface. This was the first small planetarium between New York and Boston. Astronomy classes were taught and a 6-inch reflector telescope was acquired. Member Robert Cox (who later wrote for Sky & Telescope magazine) built and donated a 10-inch reflector. This was first used on Dec. 8, 1941 on the steps of City Hall. In spite of the presence of the Mayor and City and Museum dignitaries, they were accused of signalling the Japanese!

In 1945 the Museum moved from its few rented rooms downtown to a nice building on the east edge of town. There it grew to include more astronomy, more exhibits, and a small petting zoo. When the Connecticut Thruway took a large piece of its property the Museum moved to its present location, a 118 acre tract in north Stamford. In the upset of the move the old astronomy club disbanded. It was succeeded in 1954 by the Fairfield County Astronomical Society. The Society requested the use of a small piece of land to build an observatory. The request was granted by the Museum and planning started. At first a simple shed to house the Museum's 10-inch telescope was envisioned, but the Museum requested that the observatory be opened to the public on a regular basis. That meant that there must be rest rooms, and the fact that plumbing would be available meant that a darkroom could be added for developing the inevitable astrophotos. These additions more than doubled the size of the expected building, so the design was further expanded to include a small classroom. It was realized that elevating the telescope would mean better seeing, so a second floor was added. At this stage of the planning Frank and Helen Altschul found out about the proposed observatory, since their grandson was in the astronomy program at the Museum. They donated $50,000 to build a proper observatory, and architect Gordon Johnson was hired to design it.

The Observatory building was constructed during the years 1959 and 1960 by local contractor Frank Mercede & Son. Whenever possible surplus materials from other building jobs were used, and FCAS members did as much of the construction as possible. This was particularly helpful in finishing details of the structure, and in interior painting. In spite of these economies costs exceeded the donation by the Altschuls and the Museum had to make a Public Subscription, raising about $17,000 more. It was promised at that time that the Observatory would always be available to the community.

A new and larger telescope was to be the contribution of the FCAS. It should be remembered that it was the time of the cold war and the beginning of the space race. There were lots of government contracts for local industries, and plenty of jobs. Optical engineer John Gregory was an FCAS member, and worked at the Perkin-Elmer (optical) Corp. in Norwalk. He had become intrigued with the telescope design invented by a Russian named Maksutov. The basic idea uses a lens at the front of the telescope to correct the light so that a spherical primary mirror will give a perfect focus. All optical surfaces in the telescope can be ground to spherical curves, which are the easiest to fabricate. Gregory sketched the initial design and proposed to Mr. Richard Perkin that his Company make and donate the optics, doing the work on free shop time that was available between government contracts. When Perkin agreed, the project was off and running. The same proposal was made to many manufacturers all over the Northeast, each one to make parts that were in its normal sphere of manufacture, but to our specifications. In this way a telescope was built for very little cash outlay that would have cost somewhere on the order of $200,000 at that time.

Gregory modified the Maksutov design somewhat in order to improve the performance of the telescope visually over a wide field, and had the innovative idea of building in an extra secondary mirror to convert the telescope into a very wide-field camera. Perkin-Elmer was fully up to the task, and eventually produced a set of optics of superb quality. The design and fabrication of many of the parts went forward simultaneously, with member Nils Mikelson designing the drives for the new telescope. These were eventually built by his brother who is a master toolmaker.

Gregory's first design for the Stamford project was a 20-inch clear aperture model, since 20 inches was the largest clear glass to be found for the corrector. Later the same company advised that they could cast a 22-inch clear aperture blank, and the telescope design was scaled up. It turned out that this corrector blank was flawed in that the glass was not homogeneous. It had been made from melted blocks of glass, not all of which were of exactly the same density.

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