Rockford Amateur Astronomers

Home About us Newsletter Calendar Gallery Downloads Forums Contact us Links

Our History

The Rockford Amateur Astronomers, Inc. was officially founded on March 26, 1958.

The following account comes from the club’s official history which is current to about 1990

and depends on club minutes and recollections of founding members still living at that time.

Events probably would never have happened the way they did or when they did, were it not for the inspiration and foresight of a young man, Carl Hand, who back in the early 1930’s developed an interest in the art of grinding glass to make telescopes. Sometime in early 1944, Carl Hand met Wilbur A Cogshall, who had been teaching astronomy for about forty years at Indiana University. (Dr. Cogshall was the father of founding member Sarah Hand.) At first, their primary interest was the grinding of glass for telescopes. They did this for a year or so, making a number of very fine instruments. A little later, they began to meet with two other people who not only had an interest in grinding glass mirrors for telescopes, but also had an interest in astronomy. Their names were Keith Henry and Paul Sweger. Mr. Sweger for some years had allowed the public to view through his homemade telescope in his backyard. Other people participated with this group in little astronomical get-togethers. In the early 1950’s, Mr. C. C. Taylor and A. Reyner Eastman, a well-known architect, joined this group of five or six people. This group enjoyed meeting occasionally to talk about astronomy and telescope making during the next few years. Reyner Eastman referred to persons involved in mirror work as five old men sitting around a spittoon. Around 1956, young Ernest Kent became a member of this group. Together they decided to attend Beloit Astronomical Society meetings. As members of this Beloit club, they learned of the availability of 16-inch diameter glass blanks from government surplus. Several other people from Rockford joined the group at that time, including Mr. Oakley Baldwin. The group then designated Mr. Baldwin to purchase five of these glass blanks. Under the supervision of Carl Hand, these mirror blanks were fully ground, polished, and tested by the people who wanted to build telescopes. Afterwards, these mirrors were used in the construction of reflecting telescopes Sometime in early 1958, membership from Rockford
exceeded (the) membership from Beloit in the Beloit Astronomical Society. On March 26, 1958, during a meeting at the home of Keith Henry, a decision was reached to form a separate Rockford club. Those present at this time were: Mrs. Kent and Ernest Kent, Jr., Mr. & Mrs. Carl Hand, Mr. & Mrs. Paul Sweger, Mr. & Mrs. Keith Henry, Mr. A. Reyner Eastman, and others. Business of this meeting was to discuss formation of a Rockford group, and (it was) agreed to do so. Set meeting for April 16 at invitation of Mr. Kent at the Sunbeam Bakery. (It was) agreed to send cards to all very interested people. (It was further) agreed to announce formation of Rockford Club at the Beloit Club meeting in May. Mr. Eastman is to write for a sample of constitution and by-laws from the Astronomical League, (then at the Harvard College Observatory). It is thought that regular members would start with youngest at the 11th grade high school age.
The first official meeting took place at the Sunbeam Bakery on April 16, 1958, with Mr. Earnest Kent serving as host and those present at this time were: Mr. & Mr. Carl Hand, Mr. & Mrs. C. C. Taylor, Mr. A. Reyner Eastman, Mr. Earnest Kent, Jr., Mr. Robert Ditzzler, Mr. Mike Renandez, Mr. Keith Henry, Mr. Richard Howser, Mr. Bruce Peterson, and Mr. Kurt Anderson. At that first official meeting in April it was agreed that full memberships would start with the 11th grade. A letter was also sent to the Rockford Junior Astronomy Group inviting them to attend meetings if they desired as guests of the members. It was decided that meetings would be dual purpose. The first half (was) to be made up of an elementary nature and to include discussion of current objects of the sky for observation. This would include reports from members on observations of the past month. The second half would be made up of a research paper to be given by a member or a guest. This was suggested to minimize time of business sessions. The name of the group was unanimously agreed upon to be “Rockford Amateur Astronomers”
Time of meeting was agreed to be the third Wednesday of each month throughout the entire year. (As so our club was born.)

The RAA continued to meet at the Sunbeam Bakery and later at member‘s homes on the 3rd Wednesday of each month throughout the first 14 years of the club‘s existence. Each year members joined the Clinton and Beloit Clubs for an annual banquet as well, giving continuity to the club‘s roots. In 1972 the club members began to work on interesting the Rockford community in the building of a planetarium. A formal proposal was made to the Rockford Park District in November 1972. Around this same time the club was incorporated to facilitate the fund raising process. A great deal of time and energy went into the planetarium drive in the coming years. Sarah Hand, Ethel Sweger, Bev Crittenden, Bill Dyer, Mickey Bowman and Mel Stephenson and many others worked extremely hard, volunteering many hours. Club members made presentations at every sort of public forum you could imagine. Members made and sold bricks and conducted a ―Sale of the Universe‖ campaign to raise money for the planetarium. School and scout groups joined in the fundraising by conducting paper drives and pouring and selling bricks. The Park District was extremely supportive of all of our efforts, even allowing the club to meet at the Park District Offices, still on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. It soon became apparent that the public needed more information about what a planetarium was. We eventually undertook to build a prototype planetarium and operate it at the Public Library on Wyman St. Over the years that planetarium was open, we introduced many people to the stories and wonders of the night sky through our volunteer presenters as well as through the efforts of some daytime personnel hired by the Park District. Volunteer presenters included Mel Stephenson, Bill Dyer, Mickey Bowman, Randy Trank, and Barry Beaman among others. It was during this period that Mike Day came to the club first as a visitor to present a program, then as a member of the club and volunteer at the prototype planetarium and later as a Park District employee who was the planetarium director. Today, Mike Day is director and executive producer of the Minnesota Science Museum‘s Omni Theater and 3D Cinema and has been involved in the production of numerous Omni Theater productions over the years. Mike Day originally started the Explorer Post that was sponsored by the club. When Mike left the area, Barry and Carol Beaman and Alice Hack took over the adult leadership of the Explorer Post. Several of the founding members served on the advisory board of the Post. Unfortunately the Explorer Post eventually went by the wayside. Several of its members are still active in amateur astronomy. Some even went on to work in related fields of astronomy, geology and aerospace.
RAA joined the Astronomical League in 1959. In the early years, Carl and Sarah Hand were known to go to an occasional League meeting. It wasn‘t until Jim Fox (Afton, MN) challenged RAA (or more correctly conned RAA) into hosting the 1975 North Central Region of the Astronomical League meeting, that club members began to take a more active part in the Astronomical League. In total, RAA has hosted 2 region meetings and one national meeting. Numerous members have earned League observing awards, with Jeff Carpenter leading the way. Three RAA members have been recognized for special awards by the NCRAL or the Astronomical League. These include Sam Bruesch and Barry & Carol Beaman. Also, three members have filled leadership positions in the NCRAL and the AL. These included Sharon Stauffer and Barry & Carol Beaman. Sharon and Barry were both elected to region offices. Barry was president of the League from 1994-1998. Carol served as the editor of the Reflector during the early 80‘s. Eventually it became obvious to all that the funding for a major planetarium was never going to become a reality and the planetarium drive was abandon. The funds raised over the years of the drive were placed in trust with the Park District. In 1980 , Reyner Eastman‘s 12 ½ ― telescope became available from his estate. At about the same time the Park District informed RAA that the planetarium trust fund was going to be transferred into the general fund unless we could come up with a related astronomical use. That‘s when the public observatory idea was born. Ground was broken for Quarry Hill Observatory in the fall of 1980 on the grounds of the Children‘s Farm. Park District personnel constructed the building. Club members installed the 14 foot Ash Dome on Thanksgiving weekend, 1980. The club began meeting at Trailside Center earlier that year. The observatory opened for business in early 1981. In 1985 the 12 ½ inch reflecting telescope was replaced with a 10" Christen refractor, thanks to Roland Christen. In 1989, with financial help from Mr. James Lockwood, ground was broken for the auditorium the club continues to meet in and the observatory was renamed the Lockwood Park Observatory. Over the years RAA members have not lost touch with the original founding members who got together to build telescopes and share astronomy. Many club members have built telescopes from 4 1/4 ‗ to 18 inches in size. Currently, Dave Petersen has a group within the club that is working to revive mirror grinding among the members. Rumor has it that one member is even looking at grinding a telescope out of metal in order to simulate an ancient scope. The club never succeeded in building the planetarium, but the efforts toward that project didn‘t go unnoticed. The prototype planetarium eventually became part of the Discovery Center. The original Spitz Nova projector has been replaced with a better planetarium projector and the geodesic dome has been replaced with a larger planetarium dome. School groups and families can enjoy a planetarium right here in Rockford by visiting the Discovery Center on N. Main. This Science Center has been awarded many well earned accolades by national groups. And it all started with an idea put forth by the RAA, Inc. And so the beat goes on. RAA Inc. will be working with the Discovery Center once again this year as we celebrate Astronomy Day in May. Join us throughout the year as we celebrate the past 50 years of astronomy in Rockford and look forward to more astronomy to come.

Whenever you get the chance, share this great hobby with your neighbors and family. Pass along your love of astronomy. You don‘t need a telescope. Share the night sky by just looking up and encouraging others to do the same.

You are visitor

Since April 24th, 2008

Last Updated

07/23/2008