[LVAS] FW: The Komorowski Comet Scope

Mon Mar 15 07:37:10 PDT 2010

All,

Some good reading.

Enjoy, Roger Ivester

From: drivester at hotmail.com
To: trenglish at gtcc.edu; jdire at gardner-webb.edu; dolive at gardner-webb.edu; steve.davis at fascontrols.com
Subject: FW: The Komorowski Comet Scope
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:47:57 +0000

A good e-mail that I thought you guys might enjoy reading. Sue was asking me about some other stuff that lead into this.

I have also learned too much to list about sketching from her. I went to Michaels in Charlotte yesterday and purchased a woodless graphite pencil, and some blending stumps. 

I am so sorry that I have wasted 20 years using a No. 2 pencil, or charcoal, etc. Just wait till you see my new sketches using my new art supplies. Never even heard of a blending stump, also called Tortillons. I don't kow why I have never used a pure, extra smooth graphite pencil either. 

Just like AP, so much to learn about sketching procedures.           

Roger

From: drivester at hotmail.com
To: scfrench at nycap.rr.com; drivester at hotmail.com
Subject: The Komorowski Comet Scope
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:33:51 +0000

Sue,

Just wanted to send a picture of this very old (60's) Criterion 12.5-inch Dynascope. It  belongs to our local club. It has been completly refurbished. The scope is now mounted on an older Meade DS-16A mount. This is a rare scope indeed. Some of the mirror makers in the Charlotte club tested the mirror many years ago and said "they had never seen a more accurate mirror". 

In the 60's it belonged to a guy named Ted Komorowski. He observed NGC-404 one night and thought that he had discovered a comet. Many folks in this area and beyond still call NGC 404 "Komorowski's Comet". 

James Mullaney uses this name in "Celestial Harvest. Apparently Ted had frequent correspondence with WSH back in the late 60's and 70's. WSH mentioned's him on occasion in DSW's.  

O'Meara has at least one or two of those old references in "Deep-Sky Wonders" commentary and selections. One is on page 7, concerning the Horsehead. There is maybe one or two more. Another is on page 231 using a different scope.     

Tom Lorenzin, who is a good friend, lives about an hour or so from me. He wrote a few sentences about Komorowski in his book "1000+". Seems that in the late 60's or 70's, his girlfriend shot and killed him. A very interesting story. He took stainless steel bolts out of the chairs and tables in a Charlotte Library. He needed them for attachments and other, as he never had a job.   

We have the old mount in the back of the observatory with those stolen bolts, still look like new.    

I am planning on using this scope some this year, but am not sure how to sketch due to the length of the OTA and the height of the EP.  

The obsevatory is on campus at Gardner-Webb University, here in Boiling Springs, NC. It is only about a mile or so from my house. This is where our very small astronomy club meets. We keep the 12.5-in at this observatory. GWU has a 16-inch RC on a paramount mount in the dome. They also have a 16-inch LX-200 and a variety of smaller scopes. Dr. Don Olive and Dr. Jim Dire are our resident pro's.

Jim has a very nice webpage at www.wildwoodpines.org. with some of his fabulous images. 

The desert pictures are in the Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. The Mojave desert is my favorite place on earth. Also my granddaughter Zoe is in some of the pictures. She is the sweetheart of my life.   

Roger 

    The moon and stars to govern the night.....   Psalm 136:9

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