Story of the several optical instruments of Cyrus F. and Emily S.
Fernald first of Wilton, Maine, and then of Longwood, Florida, after 1963.
I had always had interest in astronomy ever since I read a few
copies of the old Popular Astronomy, that Clarence Woodman, a cousin on my mother's side
of the family had given me. Also Henry Norris
Russell's articles in the Scientific American which I begun reading about 1914, had
helped. So when I came back to Wilton in 1932
I decided to make a telescope. My first
attempt was not very good. I sold it to a
neighbor, and do not know what became of it. Next
my father and I went over to Springfield Vermont and bought (for $40. I think) the
castings of the 8" Springfield. These
are illustrated on page 340 of my 1933 edition of Amateur Telescope making. This was signed by Arthur G. Ingalls, of the
Scientific American staff. I had an 9"
mirror that had been parabolized, and aluminized by Leroy Clausing of Chicago, and various
eyepieces, and prism holders, etc. that were necessary to operate the instrument. In 1932 I begun by going over the moon, planets,
double stars, nebulas, etc., that are listed in the yearbook of the Royal Astronomical
Society of Canada, and other publications. By
1937 I was proficient enough in locating objects in the heavens to try variable stars, so
I started on R Leonis, which also appeared to be the same star that Leslie Peltier had
started on some years before. By 1940 I was
getting to be pretty good at observing, and was much surprised when in 1941 it was
announced that I was the leading AAVSO observer. The
previous leader was an Italian, that the start of World War II had put out of action. I
held the lead for ten years. Sometime along the way discussion of how many observations
per hour were possible broke out. They were
talking in the range of 15 to 20. I knew I
was somewhat better than that, so kept careful record of my time for the next year. Then
at the next AAVSO meeting I calmly announced that I had spent 103 hours in making some
over 6600 observations, or better than 60 per hour.
On the question of the accuracy of observations, from 12-1-1942 to
9-22-1960 I made 115587 observations of which 250 were more than .2 magnitude off. If the average observer had 10.5 I called myself
right if I was between 10.3 and 10.7.
My favorite variable was RS Ophiouhi, 174406-. This is a recurrent
Nova. Normally about 11 to 12th magnitude it
occasionally flared to 5 or 6. The first
time was in the 1890's. It was not seen
bright again until I saw it at about the 6th magnitude on 7-14-1958. On 10-26-67 I caught it again bright. This time a German and an English observer had
seen it before I did. From these observations
I would expect it to be fair (?) again in the late 1970's or early 1980's. So far I have
not heard of its being seen bright.
In the early 1960's I found out that Mr. Stanley Brower of
Plainfield New Jersey, had the 10" Springfield that Albert Ingalls had owned was on
sale by his estate. So I bought it and
installed it in my back yard in Wilton for that summer. That fall we shipped it to
Longwood, and installed it in the observatory in our back yard. There it is still serving Emily and I very well. The 8" is now the property of the Central
Florida Astronomical Society, who have installed it on a plot once land owned by Charles
Finnigan, MIT class of 1934. They inform me
that it is working well, altho not completely adjusted as yet. The following table will show what we have been
able to do with our telescopes.
Cy on variables |
Wilton |
|
Longwood |
|
Tangerine |
|
Totals |
| 8"
Springfield |
118558 |
|
|
|
|
|
118558 |
| 10" Springfield |
1504 |
|
15174 |
|
|
|
16678 |
| 10" German |
200 |
|
|
|
|
|
200 |
| Questar |
|
|
50 |
|
25 |
|
75 |
| Totals |
120262 |
|
15224 |
|
25 |
|
135511 |
Emily observed 100 variables with the 8" in Wilton in
the late 1950's and 1960's.