Bristol Astronomy
Club
1950's (cont.)
The Soviet launch of Sputnik I in November, 1958 took everyone by surprise. The Moonwatch team was ready to go, however, and attempted to make observations. Unfortunately, the satellite was too small and thus too faint for the small telescopes of the King College station to detect. It was tracked by amateur radio astronomers, though.
Sputnik II was soon launched-- it was larger and brighter and was detected by the observers at King. The King Moonwatch station was only the third station in the US to report a position for this satellite.
1960's
As the club continued to meet at King, the college received a grant from the National Science Foundation for the construction and housing of a
12.5-inch Newtonian reflector to be used for photoelectric photometry.
By this time, the club was growing and had added several new members-- Joe Stover, George Kelley, Dick Brown, Dr. Waverly Green, Paul Bauer, who served as president for several years, Frank Spangler, Mike Goins, Warren Camper, Frank Biggs, Roger Ball and Richard McQueen.
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After the telescope was constructed and the observatory built, the Astronomy Club began to meet in its library room.
Construction of the telescope was begun by two of the astronomy club members-- Joe Godsey, who ground and polished the mirror, and Nat Lowe, who constructed the mount in his machine shop. Some of the work was also done by Don Pippin.
The observatory itself consisted of two parts-- a one-story brick building containing a classroom, a control room, a library and a small kitchen. In addition, to house the telescope, a roll-off shelter was constructed just behind the main building.
The completed observatory
The telescope in its shelter
The telescope shelter rolled away-- this picture is somewhat later than the one at left
In September of 1965, the observatory (along with Dr. Burke).was featured on the cover of Sky & Telescope magazine. A very imformative article appeared inside.
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Ed Burke and Don Pippin next to the completed telescope. The rectangular object at the front of the telescope is the photometer.
Late in 1969, three members of the club appeared on a local tele-vision station (WCYB) as contestants on "Club Quiz." The three members were Jim Brown, Wade Tate, and Mrs. Carol Heitt. After remaining on the show for a total of four weeks, the members received $85 in prize money (not a small sum in those days). The money was be used to help in the construction of a trailer-mounted 10-inch telescope that the club was in the process of contructing.
