History of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers

The Years of Activity, 1961-1965

Beginning in August of 1961 David Williams prepared an untitled monthly astronomy club newsletter of one or two pages. The purpose of this publication was, among other things, to document the activities of club members. Each newsletter included information about meeting dates, astronomical events, observing ideas, and other club news. After several suggestions by club members that the newsletter be named, a contest was held to do so. David’s own suggestion won – The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers. The newsletter first carried the name on the June 1962 edition.¹⁴

The OBSERVER described a small but very active club. During this second year of the club, member Mike Ryder¹⁵ obtained a 2.4-inch alt-azimuth Unitron refractor, Hank Janecek obtained 4.25-inch Newtonian reflector, and Bob Mayo moved up from a 4.25-inch reflector to an 8-inch reflector. Half a dozen members, including John Kieviet and Russell Blakney, completed homemade telescopes (6” and 4.25” respectively) before the first two years of the club came to pass.

During 1962 or 1963 the club began telescope-making activities. John Kieviet and Hank Janecek led the group using the Normal pool bathhouse on Saturday morning during the winter to do so. Under their guidance, Bill Blunk completed a 4.25-inch f/5 RFT mirror and mounted it with the assistance of Bob Mayo. John Bryan¹⁶ made a 4.25-inch telescope. Mike Ryder worked on an 8-inch telescope during this time as well.¹⁷

Because there was no “large” instrument in the club as this time, observations were limited to such things as the moon and planets, the Orion nebula, the Andromeda galaxy, and double and variable stars.¹⁸ Members also were involved in meteor observing and watching occultations of Jupiter’s moons. On four evenings in December 1961, members Hank Janecek, Bill Blunk, and Lyle Rich observed and charted 111 members of the Geminid meteor shower. Delta Cephei was observed and 31 magnitude estimates made by David Williams, Hank Janecek, and G. Weldon Schuette from October 1961 to January 1962. Weldon, commuting regularly from Gibson City¹⁹, observed the Echo satellite over 400 times. Public observing sessions were held. Attendance for trips to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago exceeded 20 several times as well. By April 1962 the club membership had stabilized at approximately 30 members, with generally ten persons attending each club function.²⁰

By the second year, fully one-half of the TCAA membership was composed of junior high school members. These members would be partitioned off in October 1963, under the leadership of Hank Janecek, into a youth group that could more easily cater to the wants and needs of the younger set. Tim McCarthy was elected president; Paul McClure, vice-president; Mike Fisher, secretary/treasurer; and Henry Charneskey, librarian. The meetings of the youth group were held concurrently with the regular club meetings.

Of particular note among the junior members were six very active boys²¹ – among them David Williams, Mike Ryder, Taylor Cisco²², and John Bryan (the older ones who observed mostly on their own), as well as Bill Blunk and Lyle Rich (the younger ones who observed mostly with one another during club functions under supervision of John Kieviet, Hank Janecek and Bob Mayo. These individuals, mostly high school students at that time, were extremely active amateur astronomers and telescope makers. These individuals inspired many of the club’s early activities. They frequently traveled to the Peoria Academy of Sciences’ Northmoor Observatory for all-night observing sessions, observing primarily lunar and planetary objects.

There were numerous opportunities to observe the heavens. Besides the observatory equipment in Peoria, club members had obtained early access to IWU’s Behr Observatory.²³ After a professor at IWU by the name of Porter F. Brace departed in 1961, astronomy courses at that institution were discontinued. As a result, the Behr Observatory, which contained a 6.25-inch refractor, became unavailable to TCAA members and fell into disuse for several years.

The TCAA’s early involvement with the town of Normal nearly paid off by way of a public observatory on city property. Members had reason to believe that the town would completely fund such an observatory, and John Kieviet and others approached the city council for approval. Upon the recommendation of the new Normal Parks and Recreation director, Mr. Jerry MacDonald, the club undertook a program of selling hot chocolate to ice skaters at Fairview Park as a fundraising effort to support the project. Bertha would make kettles of cocoa in her kitchen and then transfer the mixture to insulated jugs to take to skaters and viewing parties on chilly evenings. During the months of December 1961 and January 1962 the ladies of the club, headed by Bertha Kieviet, generated $55 for the observatory. Upon further examination of the costs involved, the city leaders rejected the proposal as too expensive.

With the passing of the years, TCAA members kept up their chosen mandate of being an entity dedicated to public service. Numerous star parties were held for Scouts and also for the general public. Membership swelled to a high in 1963 with 53 persons comprising the club, and many of these members undertook observing projects on their own. On July 20, 1963, a partial solar eclipse observing session at the home of Hank Janecek; it was attended by some 15 club members as well as members of the general public. Robert Courtney²⁴ went to Maine to observe the total phase of the eclipse, while Dan Hovis²⁵ went to Canada. Weldon Schuette also attempted traveling to Canada but was prevented from doing so by car trouble; he observed a partial eclipse from Indiana.

Observing the sky was an obsession for some, especially with the younger members. On the night of July 29, 1963, Lyle Rich and three other club members observed the Delta Aquarid meteor shower. Lyle observed and recorded 106 meteors. The observations formed the basis of a short article that appeared in the September 1963 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine. Beyond meteor observations, numerous magnitude estimates continued as part of an ongoing observing program. Beta Lyrae was the subject of 66 observations completed by David Williams, Mike Ryder, Hank Janecek, Warren Light, Bill Blunk, and Lyle Rich²⁶. The observations and the club’s observing project were the subject of an article prepared for Review of Popular Astronomy in the July 1964 issue. Observations were also made of comets Alcock, Humason, and Ikeya-Seki, as well as Nova Herculis during this time.

Observing was not the only focus of club members at this time. There was undoubtedly much reading and lively discussion. Rev. Lloyde Strouse spent some of his time writing poetry. He wrote The Sky is Yours in 1963, and distributed it to club members on sheets of mimeographed paper.

With the arrival of Dr. Ray Wilson, a new instructor of astronomy at IWU, things began to change in October 1963. Under the auspices of Dr. Wilson, Barry Beaman²⁷ and later David Williams refurbished the aging equipment of Behr Observatory. Barry first installed a 4.25-inch refractor and later, working with David, re-installed the refurbished 6-inch refractor that had been removed earlier. These efforts were rewarded by a chance to observe a total lunar eclipse from the observatory on December 19, 1964.

Figure 8: IWU’s Behr Observatory

Throughout their time at IWU, much of Barry’s and David’s lives revolved around the Behr Observatory. One night, Barry would later fondly recall, Weldon Schuette stopped by the observatory. After about 15 minutes of small talk he humbly announced that he had just completed his 1,000th observation of the Echo 1 satellite. Somewhat later, by the autumn of 1966, Barry and David would rebuild and then reinstall the observatory’s original 18-inch reflector. Barry, with the assistance of his father, would later build a 3-prism spectrograph. The 18-inch telescope placed on a massive Cave mount, would eventually find its way into the new Mark Evans Observatory²⁸. There it would remain until, several years later it was replaced by the current 16-inch Ealing Cassegrain reflector. In January 1966, Barry moved to Peoria working as a substitute teacher and lost contact with the TCAA.²⁹

Figure 9: The Behr 18-inch reflecting telescope

By the summer of 1964, the club had its observatory. With Bob Mayo as “prime mover,” the first club observatory was built on the Fred Fissel farm on the crest of the Bloomington Moraine just north-northeast of Normal. Mr. Fissel, Bob’s friend, “loaned” a plot of land for the observatory on the condition that the club membership maintain it. The membership agreed to do this. Using scrap wood from an abandoned rectangular two-story “chicken house”³⁰ in Lexington, club members worked from late 1963 through the summer of 1964 to build a roll-off-roof observatory. The chicken house provided plenty of structural lumber, siding, and roofing planks. The new observatory, named the Beehive Observatory³¹, housed the 8-inch home-built reflecting telescope built by Mr. Mayo. A Lionel locomotive motor drove the telescope. The observatory was officially opened on the evening of June 12, 1964, and was preceded by a picnic that subsequently became an annual tradition. Taylor Cisco and David Williams, who spent their time viewing and drawing lunar craters, conducted some of the first systematic observations there.

Figure 7: The Fissel Farm “Beehive” Observatory

During the early 1960s, events relating to astronomy happened quickly. In October of 1963 the eminent astronomer Harlow Shapley lectured to the TCAA.³² Dr. Shapley, of Harvard College Observatory, spoke about “astronomy and astronomers” and focused attention on the international nature of astronomy. Later that autumn, David Williams, having become a student at IWU, met Barry Beaman. They made a compact with David saying, “You join my astronomy club and I’ll join your fraternity.” It was quickly a done deal. Barry and David formed a life-long friendship that year that has continued to the present day. Much of their early friendship revolved around refurbishment of the Behr Observatory following the departure of Professor Brace.

In January 1964 several members convened at Fairview Park after midnight to observe a lunar eclipse. In February of the same year the Peoria planetarium opened with a 33-foot dome and Goto G-1 star projector. Club members visited the facility the same month.

Regular public observing sessions became a reality during the summer of 1964. Among these were sessions held at Oakland Elementary School in Bloomington. On most occasions, Rev. Lloyde Strouse, a Methodist minister who lived on Vale Street near the school, conducted these observing sessions attended by a few other TCAAers and members of the general public. The sessions were simple and included observations of brighter celestial objects using one or two small telescopes. There were no formal presentations at these events, but Rev. Strouse would point out planets and constellations while observers were waiting for their turn at the telescope. A typical observing session would consist of about a dozen or so members of the general public – mostly school children with their parents. Among the student observers was a very young Lee Green who would one day also figure prominently in the history of the TCAA.³³

Several hundred persons attended these and other special functions but, to the disappointment of the club, only two members were gained by the numerous and widely publicized events. Several newspaper articles had featured the astronomy club and its activities, but the club failed to grow substantially. The membership had grown explosively during its earliest days, but now that rate of growth had begun to wane. Many other things kept the spirits of the membership high, however. One such thing was the opening of the ISU Physics Department Planetarium on September 1, 1964.

At about the same time that the TCAA had its start, ISU began to expand. With funding from the National Science Foundation, a planetarium was added to construction plans for the new Felmley Hall of Science. Not part of the original building plan, the planetarium was added only as an afterthought when the agency funding the expansion project reviewed a wish list from ISU. At the very bottom of this 30-item wish list was a planetarium. The National Science Foundation reviewed this aspect of the wish list favorably, and a planetarium was added with little concern for staffing, parking, and restroom facilities. It was only later agreed that the planetarium should serve the purpose of being used in the Physics Department’s astronomy course, for holding adult education courses, for instructing school and social groups, and for admitting the general public from time to time.

Opening without a formal staff, Dr. Harold J. Born, chair of the ISU Physics Department, asked IWU’s astronomer Dr. Ray Wilson to help with getting the new planetarium operational. During September of 1964 Dr. Wilson gave several astronomy club members a peek at the new facility, and explained how the Spitz A3P star machine could project sun, moon, and planets, along with 1,354 stars and the Milky Way. He subsequently was asked to “give a show” to the rest of the astronomy club. He did this on October 1, 1964, one month after the official building opening. Ray again explained the workings of the Spitz A3P star projector, and allowed the membership time to do a bit of constellation study as well. Thus began the long and cordial relationship between the ISU Planetarium and the TCAA that continued for many years under the guidance of various ISU Physics faculty members (1964 - 1971), and planetarium directors: Nerio Calgaro (1971 - 1974), Patrick McGee (1974 - 1978), Carl J. Wenning (1978 - 2001), and Thomas Willmitch (2001 - present).³⁴

Figure 10: The ISU Planetarium as it appeared in 1964

With June 1965, the detailed record of the TCAA comes to an end. David Williams, the editor³⁵ of the club’s newsletter, left town after graduating from IWU. The newsletter, The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers, was no more. The last item of importance noted in the final newsletter was the fact the David had introduced a program of regular Messier observing and had kicked off the project with a lecture about Messier himself. With the loss of the newsletter there was no widely distributed documentation of the club’s activity. What was recorded appeared only in the club minutes and newspaper accounts. Unfortunately, some of the earliest secretary’s minutes and sign in log (containing the signature of Harlow Shapley) disappeared and later minutes were irretrievably lost in 1981³⁶. The history that remains of the club’s next dozen or so years comes only from a few newspaper clippings and memories of some of the TCAA’s early members.

¹⁴ It is probably only a coincidence, but the newsletter of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV, was also titled The Observer at about this same time. This NRAO publication ran from 1961 – 1981.

¹⁵ At the time of this writing, Mike is a retired physical science teacher and school administrator.

¹⁶ Bill Blunk later remarked, “One former member who I have not seen any current information about is John Bryan. John was the same age as Dave Williams and Mike Ryder and was a club member at about the same time. I believe he and Dave were members (perhaps the main members) of a musical group called the “Hydraulic Banana Singers”. They specialized in “Tom Lehrer” like satire and one song I recall (perhaps at a TCAA function) was a modification of “John Henry” who in the song was “a mirror grindin man” rather than a “steel drivin man” (personal communication, April 1, 2010).

¹⁷ For additional details about telescope making, see Bill Blunk in His Own Words in Appendix 2. For comments from early members, see in this same appendix reflections by Taylor Cisco and Mike Ryder.

¹⁸ David Williams and Barry Beaman were both AAVSO members and reported their observations that were announced bi-monthly in the Review of Popular Astronomy – the same publication that would employ David as Associate Editor several years later.

¹⁹ At this time Weldon worked for Vail H. Moore Associates in Paxton as an architectural draftsman. He moved to Normal to start work for Keith Middleton & Associates, Architects, on April 1, 1964.

²⁰ The club membership grew from 23 in 1960, to 33 in 1961, to 39 in 1962, and to 53 in 1963. After that, the membership numbers fluctuated up and down on an annual basis. The average annual membership over the first 25 years of the club was 33.2. The total number of different members over the first 25 years was 181.

²¹ As this manuscript is being written, David is living in Whitestown, IN; Mike is living in Oregon, IL; Taylor is living in Chicago, IL; John’s whereabouts are unknown; Bill is living in Joliet, IL; and Lyle is deceased.

²² Taylor was enrolled at University High School at this time along with club member Sue Remsburg.

²³ Located on the current site of the Mark Evans Observatory.

²⁴ He was a well-known projectionist at the Normal Theater and the Irvin and Castle theaters in Bloomington.

²⁵ Mr. Hovis was a traveling salesman from Belvidere, Illinois, who happened to be in the Twin Cities every Thursday evening and attended club activities when able to do so.

²⁶ TCAAers reported variable star observations to AAVSO regularly from 1962 through 1966. During this interval club observers provided the following numbers of reports: David B. Williams, 405; Barry Beaman, 25; Bill Blunk, 19; Hank Janecek, 9; Mike Ryder, 7; Lyle Rich, 4; and Taylor Cisco, 1. (Data taken from AAVSO Annual Reports.)

²⁷ Barry would become a well-known variable star observer, and serve as president of the Astronomical League from 1994 – 1998.

²⁸ The Mark Evans Memorial Observatory was dedicated on March 18, 1969. In attendance was honored guest and astronaut Col. Frank Borman of Gemini 7 and Apollo 8 fame. Borman “secured the cornerstone” of the observatory after depositing a time capsule containing memorabilia, including a medallion that had circled the moon during the Christmas 1968 Apollo 8 mission. Also in attendance were IWU Physics Department members Gary Kessler and Ray Wilson. See IWU’s weekly newspaper, The Argus, for details.

²⁹ Barry moved to Peoria to become a substitute teacher. In July 1966 Barry married Carol Gray, and in October Barry joined the USAF. They returned to Illinois 6.5 years later and took up residence in Rockford, IL, where they reside to this day. The 18-inch telescope’s truss system now supports Barry’s 16-inch homebuilt reflector in the Praesepe Observatory. They returned to Bloomington-Normal from time to time and maintained their TCAA membership until the summer of 1973 when they learned of the Rockford Amateur Astronomers. Several years later Barry became the chair of the NCRAL meeting at Rockton, IL, and Carol became editor of the Astronomical League’s newsletter The Reflector. Shortly thereafter, Barry became president of the Astronomical League.

³⁰ Barry remarked in January 2010, “First thing that comes to mind…is the ‘barn’ we tore down. Actually, it was a two story ‘chicken house.’ We had looked at several circular chicken houses that local farmers offered to donate for telescope shelters. The older club members concluded that doing anything with these buildings was too much work. But the rectangular, two story chicken house offered plenty of structural lumber, siding, and roofing planks. It just needed a little cleaning. Well, that’s an understatement. Our crew was seven or eight TCAA members. I know Hank Janacek was there and I was there. I’m not sure if David Williams was there, and I think Bill Blunk and Lyle Rich may have been there. We split into outside and inside crews and went to work. The outsiders got a little dusty but when the insiders came out they looked like they were ready to go on stage in a minstrel show. Those second floor chickens had been very busy depositing a lot more than eggs in that building!”

³¹ Mr. Fissel was a beekeeper who kept honeybees in the vicinity; hence, the name of the observatory. Barry Beaman would later call his observatory in Rockford, IL, the Praesepe (Beehive) Observatory.

³² The IWU Physics Department had brought Dr. Shapley to campus and Barry Beaman, an IWU physics major, was assigned the task of escorting Shapley to various offices around campus including the philosophy and religion departments. There he evidently argued with various faculty members. Barry would later describe Shapley as “a grumpy old man.” Barry did not attend the TCAA event as he had not yet made a connection with the club.

³³ Lee Green would become president of the TCAA for the first time in 2007 and continue in this capacity for three consecutive years.

³⁴ While an experienced amateur astronomer, Tom never became significantly involved in the TCAA.

³⁵ See Appendix 6 for a listing of editors, property managers, and other minor office holders by year.

³⁶ A discussion with Bob Finnigan on August 3, 2010 revealed that some of the club’s important historical documents were irretrievably lost following a club meeting at Bob Johnson’s Brandtville Restaurant in Bloomington. The records were inadvertently left behind following the meeting. Upon inquiring at the restaurant, the club was informed by the management that one of the restaurant’s workers had thrown away the materials without thinking.