Dear members of RAC, RAS, CAS and the BRAC,
Yesterday in Rustville , Va the genesis of what I believe will be an important effort to restore a historical telescope took its first step!
Yesterday Jim Browder and Randy Tatum of the Richmond Astronomical Society delivered to the home of Josh Urban (a member of the Blue Ridge Astronomy Club, Charlottesville Astronomical Society, Richmond Astronomical Society and the Rappahannock Astronomy Club) the mount, pier, skeleton tube, and most importantly the 12.5” f8 main mirror made by the firm J.W. Fecker in 1941.
After unloading the massive mount, pier, and the skeleton tube ( which were destined for the scrap heap if no one removed them from the halls of the physics wing at Randolph Macon College) , we formed the Hibbard Telescope Restoration Group. To be fair I don’t think anyone at Randolph Macon College really knew much about the history of this telescope as it was in storage for about 58 years collecting dust. It had been used in the RMC’s first observatory in the 1960’s. The Fecker primary was never in danger of being thrown away as it was safely in storage at the RAS Ragland Observatory on Robius Rd in Richmond. However, it’s presence there was somewhat of a mystery as the full history was unknown and certainly no one in the RAS knew it was a part of the Hibbard scope until recently when Jim, Randy and I began swapping info about the pending move of the large ASKO mount in the same hallway as the Hibbard telescope parts.
It’s still a long way off, but our goal is to fully restore the Hibbard telescope back to working order and once again let starlight reflect off the Fecker mirror. This hasn’t happened in about 60 years. Josh has graciously offered his property for this purpose, and will act as one of its stewards in the years going forward. In addition, I have asked Josh to be the next steward of my 4.5” f/15 Brashear-Wilbur Stone refractor. While it’s still very early in the planning, it may end up that we house both of these telescopes which have general historical significance related to amateur astronomy in Virginia in the mid-20th century and the early days of the Richmond Astronomical Society in particular.
As you can imagine, this will be quite an undertaking. If anyone reading this email would like to help with this effort- please feel free to contact me. At this point our immediate goals will be the cleaning and inspection of the massive mount. In addition we will need to determine if the wiring and motors are still good. Eventually we would like to restore the mount to as close to original condition as possible. This means we will need skills in wiring, machining, electrical power supply’s , concrete work, construction, heavy lifting of the mount onto its pier and probably things I haven’t even thought of yet.
I am enclosing some pictures which show our first meeting / work party yesterday. The future site of the observatory we hope will be in the area where we are all standing. I’m also including some pictures of our “ heavy lifters” – the four of us who moved the massive mount and pier into Josh’s basement. We also had help from my wife Terry, and my granddaughter Marleigh and dog Obi came along as well! It was a great time and again just want to say thank you to Jim Browder, Randy Tatum, and Josh Urban. We made great progress yesterday and am looking forward to restoring this historic instrument!
In the historical picture of the three men standing with the telescope, I believe they are from left to right James C Vaughn , Thomas Wilbur Stone, and Foy N. Hibbard.
Sincerely,
Myron Wasiuta
President- Rappahannock Astronomy Club
Member- Charlottesville Astronomical Society
Unofficial “historian” Richmond Astronomical Society