Smith College 16" Boller and Chivens Rescue |
Smith College 16" Boller and Chivens Rescue |
In June of 2021 I acquired a beautiful 14.5 foot Ash dome from Berea Collete in Berea Kentucky. Its ironic that this dome had a B&C 16 inch telescope in it that went to Peter Ceravolo in Canada. (very good story for another web page). This dome that housed a 16 inch B&C will once again house a 16 inch B&C, just not the same one.
I want to be able to put this dome to good use, preferably a remote observatory in New Mexico. But of course, you need a good scope to put in it. I have found that the cost and effort of the "observatory" is much more than the cost of the "scope".
When visiting my parents who live in Texas for Thanksgiving in 2021. I went to New Mexico to see John Briggs to see if he could help me out. I had met John at Stellafane (Vermont) and had emailed him a few times. I made arrangements to see his telescope lyceum in Magdalena NM.
I had my eye on a couple of 20+ inch telescopes that turned out to be too big and he did not want to part with them.
HOWEVER.....
He had been promised a 16 inch B&C from Smith College in Massachusetts before Covid and had no ability to see the deal through. He sent the appropriate emails to the powers that be at Smith College and handed the project over to me.
I met with Smith College in February of 2022 (it was VERY cold) and made the necessary arrangements and scheduled removal to start in March witch took several trips and finished up in May.
First we removed the telescope, relatively easy for 3 big guys.
The mount comes apart in 2 pieces, one weight 450 lbs and the other 2000 lbs. My brother and I spent a couple of Saturday's up there preparing the dome and mount for removal. We removed all of the small stuff, removed the big heavy lead counter weights and loosened up what every nuts and bolts we could that would not cause something to fall over. LOTS of rusted nuts.
Now its time to take it down.
I had to rent a "crane", since this was only 1 story and not 5 like Kentucky, it was much cheaper. Still by the time I had everything home, it had cost me about $5K for the "free" telescope.
A funny story about my crew. My brother flies hot air balloons and has a large collection of people that help with that, many of them I know as well. One particular couple, the wife is interested in astronomy and she is on the small side. I asked my brother to ask her if she was claustrophobic. Her immediate answer was "What are you getting me into this time??". Both of them helped and she was able to crawl inside the base to do all of the bolts that have to be unscrewed from INSIDE the base. I could never get that part done, I am 6'4".
Notice my home made spreader bar. I had learned a lot watching the professionals in Berea as to how to remove a dome without damage. The lift cost a little less than $1K and I was able to operate it myself. It was the biggest unit they rented without business insurance. It had a lift rating of 6,000 pounds and a reach of 45 feet.
The dome is an Observa-Dome Labs 16 foot alluminum dome. The dome was sold before I even got it home. I was not trying to sell it, but I had other domes and did not need it. Someone had heard that I had some domes and contacted me about getting one. It is headed for use in Vermont near Stellafane.
At home, got it all home and unloaded. Anxiously waiting to start working on, hopefully this winter.
I cut about 8 inches off of the tubes and installed Moonlite 2.5 inch motorized focusers. I replaced the 4 inch William Optics refractor on my mount and have been using to photograph the moon a lot. I sent a few of the pictures to Smith and they were extremely happy to see something actually being done with the scope(s).
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Edward H De Coningh and Mary De Coningh Smyth in memory of Virginia Mueller De Coningh Class 1925 There was a star danced and under that I was born |
The original telescope project was joint venture among 5 colleges
In the 1990's, Prof. Michael Skrutskie (@ UMass, now at UVA) was pretty much the sole user of the B&C in Whately. He ran an undergraduate lab that used the telescope extensively. By then, a warm room had been added adjacent to the dome, with data lines running from the dome.
His students took observations of bright carbon stars at J, H, and K bands using a liquid nitrogen cooled HgCdTl near-infrared camera and developed a processing pipeline to reduce the data and take photometry. Some of this work was a precursor to the 2MASS prototype camera and processing pipeline, which Mike was deeply involved with.
The goal of what I am working on with John Briggs is a facility that will PRESERVE and pass off to the next generation these great instruments, not something at my "home" where the next owner might not give a rat's *** and just tear it all down.
I have not even started on the main 16 inch telescope but I have the 2 finder scopes up and running with new focusers on them. I use one of them regularly, they are 4 inch Jaeger's doublets. Extremely good lunar scope. I have sent a few pictures taken with it back to the people that I dealt with at Smith and they were very happy. This thread is going to be my "bible" for working on mine.
This is when I got it home. It currently sits under tarps waiting for my pole barn to be completed (24x40x12) that will give me PLENTY of room to work on these big beasts. I had wanted to have the bard done by now but the ground has been too wet all summer.
And that concludes my story up until now. This thread is VERY important to me in it is my guide to follow once I start working on mine. Thanks again to Peter Ceravolo and John Briggs. for making all of this happen.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1964 | Observatory at MacLeish field completed |
| 1995 | Last use at Smith College |
| 2021-Dec | Mark & John Briggs discussed project transition |
| 2022-Feb | Mark meet with Smith College (Paul Wetzel) |
| 2022-April | Telescope removed |
| 2022-May | Dome and mount removed |
| 2022-Nov | Finder scopes refurbished with new focusers, in use |
| Current | Waiting restoration in Pennsylvania |