History of the Milwaukee Astronomical Society

 

1952-1963 - The Quonset, Moonwatch, Expansion Plans

This era is going to plagued with difficulty in getting the B-Dome finished and then getting the telescope operating in the dome. It will not be until almost 1960 until it is functioning. 

 

When the new observatory is finally complete, Buckstaff's telescope is installed and becomes the third permanently mounted instrument in operation. We have now entered the era of the "Double Dome." Informally it is immediately called the Buckstaff Telescope, but most members generally started referring to it as the B-Scope. By this time Armfield had to move to Ohio and with his departure he officially gave his telescope to the MAS. That telescope was informally called the Armfield Telescope, but the membership referred to it as the A-Scope. Later, both telescopes would be formally designated.

 

The Buckstaff Telescope. Note at this time it does not have a clock drive.

 

1952

Ed Halbach receives the Amateur Astronomers Medal Award from the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York, for his meritorious service by amateurs to the science of astronomy.  

 

1953

Having failed to raise enough money to build a third dome, a new rollaway shed is constructed to house the 10-inch reflector that was donated by Luverne Armfield. It was built in the location of the rollaway shed that housed the extremely long 8-inch reflector donated by A. C. Tabbott. The shed in this position (essentially between the A and B Domes) becomes known as the C-Shed. The rollaway shelter that was there was then moved some 20 feet north and west to house an Alvin Clark refractor which became known as the D-Shed.

 

1954

The transit of Mercury is successfully photographed by members of the MAS. Bill Albrecht leads solar eclipse expedition to Mattice, Canada, but is clouded out.

 

1955

Late in 1954, the society lobbied the City Service Commission that the Monastery (the old voting booth building) had become inadequate for its public outreach and education because often there'd be more than 100 visitors. They were requesting a city-owned Quonset hut and there were a number of them in Bay View which would be vacated shortly by their tenants. Since they could not be given directly to the society (and the MAS couldn't afford to purchase one), they requested that one be transferred to the Milwaukee Public Museum who would then lend the building, just as it was done for the voting booth building. The request was approved in January of 1955 and then thanks to the museum, we received a 48' X 20' Quonset hut. The members raised it and mounted it on timbers ready to move. Early one morning, with police permission, the building was transported to New Berlin. The foundation had been prepared in advance. They were hoping to lay this between the A and B dome, thus fulfilling the original plan of two domed buildings joined by a single story building that would serve as a meeting hall. But the height of the B-Dome was not sufficient so the idea proved impractical. Instead, it was decided that it could be attached to the A-Dome and point toward the north. The following year the Quonset would be partitioned to have an office area in the back area and a oil heater added. That year there was an Annular eclipse expedition to Somalialand.

 

1956

Glaser Road becomes Observatory Road. The membership voted to increase dues to $7.00 per year. 

 

1957

The MAS starts an open house program for its members every Saturday night from May to October which eventually will be every Saturday which today we call Saturday Member's Night.

The MAS joins "Project Moonwatch" which is a satellite tracking program, a program that already existed, but was boosted by the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik.

In 1957, A.O. Smith Company donated $1700 toward the construction of a rotating shuttered satellite observation building. It is decided that the funds be used to convert the Monastery to a "Moonwatch Building" for the satellite tracking program. By that time the office and library had already been moved to the back room of the Quonset as that section was now heated. In late August, they started work on the conversion. A new roof was put on (making it a flat roof) with a pier added so instruments could view the sky through an opening with a hinged cover. The structure was completed by November.

The picture shows the new structure that became known as the Satellite Shed. At the left in that picture is the original Tool Shed and just to the right is the lower portion of what was the radio mast constructed in 1938.

 

1958

Member Roy Lewis passes away and in his will be bequests to the MAS an Alvin Clark 5-inch refractor.

 

1959

Members Pope and Osypowski obtain superb lunar and planetary photographs using the A-Scope.
 

 

The newsletter for the club called The Double Dome is started at the suggestion of Halbach. There had been no newsletter for the club since 1938! In the first issue, dated January, the following was written by an unknown editor: "THE EDITOR indignantly denies founding this newsletter to promote his own speech. The idea was Ed Halbach's, and the purpose is to publicize our efforts to blast ourselves off our fat launching pads. Since one of the immediate objectives is to finish the Buckstaff 12 inch installation, we were tempted to call this sheet the 'Empty Dome.' Feared somebody would mistake the title for a description of the writer." And there is a pretty bad typo: the date shown is 1958 when it was in fact 1959!

 

1960

Continued work on satellite tracking, culminating in the visual observation of Sputnik 4 re-entry by Len Schaefer, Ray Zit, and Gale Highsmith in September 1962. These along with observations the MAS Moonwatch program made were instrumental in helping to recover pieces of the spacecraft that fell in Manitowoc and West Bend. You can read more about this here.

 

1961

The 13 inch mirror on loan from the AAVSO is in need of refiguring and realuminizing. Rather than go through that expense, especially because it's plate glass and does not belong to the MAS, they started a fund in 1960 to buy a new 12.5 inch mirror of superb quality from Cave Optical. A fundraising campaign is started and for $250 they secure the mirror, the diagonal, and a new mirror cell. The old 13 inch mirror is returned to the AAVSO. The new mirror has a focal length of 108.875 inches making the new A-Scope an f/8.71.

MAS Observatory in 1960 or 1961.

 

1962

The Wisconsin Sand and Gravel Company offered to buy our observatory site. The City of New Berlin had made it clear that they want our observatory moved and both hills leveled. Bill Albrecht paid for a 45-day option on a new site west of Waukesha on Highway 18. Albrecht also draws up plans for the new observatory featuring 2 14-foot domes and a satellite lid. But it also has a lecture hall, office, library, dark room, and bathrooms.

After much talk and many meetings they refused to pay the $60,000 we asked, most of that money for the construction of the proposed observatory. Our refusal to move for less than $60,000 stopped this.

A phone is installed at the observatory.

The MAS was featured in an article in the April 1962 issue of Sky and Telescope. It was entitled "Amateur Astronomy in Milwaukee" and was written by long-time member, Carolyn Kliman. Note: The pages shown are just for basic display. Due to copyright, they have been reduced to a size and resolution where they cannot be read. If you are a member of the MAS, we own a copy of this and it is available for viewing at our observatory.

 

1963

The MAS is offered as a gift 2 additional acres of adjacent land by Harry Phillips (brother of M.J.W. Phillips who donated the original 1.1 acres). However, we pay the $2,000 title fee. The new property line to the west is where there is now a natural gas line easement.

 

The board approves the official naming of the two main telescopes: Armfield and Buckstaff with nameplates. For years they've been informally called that, anyway. There is a new sign in the parking lot. The board approves the addition of restrooms and a darkroom for the observatory by extending the Armfield Observatory.

Dues were raised to $10.00 per year with $1.00 additional for family members. All new locks were installed including a new one for the telephone.