The Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society, a group formed in 1986 under the auspices of the Champaign Park District, owns and operates a small observatory southwest of Champaign, just south of the Monticello Road. It is a place where members can go to spy faint galaxies or glorious nebulae and the public can take a peak at a universe they normally never see. A 15-foot, twin shutter observatory dome highlights our facility and a 16" telescope is housed within. It was the dome that brought the idea to build an observatory to a reality, to salvage a small piece of history from ruin.
The 15-foot observatory dome is not a new piece of equipment. In fact, its roots may be traced to its initial construction on the University of Illinois campus in September of 1914. The current campus observatory, housing a 12" Warner & Swasey Refractor, was the fifth major facility in the State of Illinois, and the fourth state university to build one in the United States. It opened for use by students and faculty in 1896. Joel Stebbins, known for his pioneering work in photoelectric photometry, desired another facility to be located behind the main observatory. A two storied structure designed by Professor James White was finally built and equipped with a telescope with optics purchased by Stebbins: a 30-inch spherical mirror with a 20-inch focal length! It cost $1500. Rumor has it that it was called "the bathtub" and was at one time used to attempt to view the flight of lost souls!
Robert Baker, famed writer of astronomical textbooks and co-writer with Herbert Zim of the popular The Stars, became the third director of the UI Observatory in 1925. He proceeded to move the 15-foot dome and building to a new darker site south of Florida Avenue, just east of Wright Street. It was re-equipped with a new Cassegrain system whose optics were built by John Mellish. The primary had a 29.5-inch aperture with a 6-foot focal length; effectively an f/12 system. This became the primary research instrument on campus, as the 12-inch refractor, under brighter skies, became more of a public telescope. From 1939-1951 no less than seven papers were published using data gained by use of this facility, including work by Allan Sandage. The instrumentation included a J.B. Hayes (of Urbana) photometer that was to later make national headlines.
Photoelectric photometry is a process by which starlight falling on a photocell generates an electric current proportional to the amount of light received. With the advent of photometry accurate stellar brightnesses could be obtained. These measurements are central to theories of stellar evolution. Nearly every instrument operating today, on the Earth or above it, including the Hubble Space Telescope, uses a photometer. Its development at Illinois is a milestone, not only for the field of astronomy, but for science in general.
In the spring of 1933 the city of Chicago was hosting the "Century of Progress" Exposition as part of the World's Fair. On the evening of May 27, 1933 at 9:15 p.m. the light of the distant star Arcturus was focused onto photocells at four observatories. The electric current generated in the cells was used to throw a switch that activated the lights at the fair. Arcturus was chosen because of its distance, estimated to be 40 light years from Earth. It had been 40 years since Chicago last hosted the fair, meaning that the light that was used on that night in 1933, left Arcturus during the previous fair. The telescopes used in the event were located at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Harvard College Observatory in Massachusetts, Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, and, last but not least, a 29.5-inch Cassegrain telescope housed in a 15-foot dome, just south of the University of Illinois campus. [After the initial opening ceremonies, the lights were activated each night by the observatory at Elgin, Illinois.]
In the late 1930's Mr. Baker's research was switched to studies of the Milky Way. To assist him in these ventures, the observatory reflector was dismantled and replaced with a 4-inch f/7 Ross-Fecker plate camera, capable of using 8 x 10-inch plates covering approximately 4 x 9 degree field in the sky. Baker collaborated with Bart Bok, noted author of many editions of The Milky Way, in photographing large star fields. Baker retired in late 1951, giving way to an Englishman named George C. McVittie. McVittie came highly recommended by no other than Harlow Shapley, the astronomer who determined the Sun's place in the galaxy.
McVittie arrived at the University of Illinois in 1952, immediately modernizing the 12" Refractor and, among other things, starting the UI Astronomy Club. He also initiated work on a radio observatory to be constructed south of Danville, to become the Vermillion Radio Observatory, plus a new, dark-sky optical facility. Prairie Observatory opened in 1968 after three years of planning and fundraising. Situated on 60 acres of land surrounded by 25,000 white pines near Walnut Point State Park, a 40-foot observatory complex housed a 40" f/3 Reflector, the largest in the area. The telescope itself cost about $244,000, most of it coming from a National Science Foundation grant. Along with the 40-foot giant was the little 15-foot dome, closed in 1966 due to the widening of Florida Avenue and relocated to darker skies.
Prairie Observatory continued to operate until the spring of 1981. A lack of funds plus the propensity of cloudy skies influenced then department head, Icko Iben, to close the site and turn the property over to the Department of Conservation. The 40-inch telescope was transferred to Mount Laguna in California to be jointly operated by the U of I and San Diego State University. The Ross plate camera continued to be utilized by both the Astronomy Department and the U of I Astronomy Club until vandals destroyed the instrument in 1983.
The Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society was formed in July of 1986. Shortly after the 168th American Astronomical Society meeting in Ames, Iowa, in June of 1986 I was contacted via postcard by Mr. John Briggs of the Mount Wilson Institute, a consortium attempting to resurrect the aging Mount Wilson Observatory in California. Mr. Briggs, who currently is employed by Yerkes Observatory at their South Pole station, and his colleagues were trying to bring a large-aperture refracting telescope from New Zealand to the mountain and use it in a public observatory. He was very interested in the abandoned 40-foot structure at Prairie. (To this day I don't remember talking to the guy or where he got my name!) At his request, I ventured to the site and took some pictures to send to him. I also jokingly mentioned the 15-foot structure to Paul Ellis, then Assistant Director of Cultural Programs for the Champaign Park District. After some discussion, Paul took it on his own initiative to write a proposal to the Champaign Park Board in 1988 to see how feasible an observatory might be. His efforts were rewarded with a positive response and a request for more information.
The first "Observatory/Telescope Committee" meeting took place on February 7, 1989 at the home of member Jim Zimmerman. Possible locations for such a facility, publicity, and the operation of a "Observatory Fund" were on the agenda. In July of that year Liz Merdian of WICD-TV did a feature story on the project and Avis Barker put a picture of the dome on the cover of the July 12, 1989 Parkland Prospectus. Bob Januzik created a new brochure for our "Observatory Fund" that was approved by the park board. Mike Svec submitted estimates for upkeep of the UI's campus observatory. In the fall, the V.M. Slipher Committee awarded C.U.A.S. a grant of $970 for the purchase of a primary mirror. Following a lead from member Cliff Maduzia, Mr. Bill Buddington, a carpenter from West Aurora, was commissioned in April of 1990 for the fabrication of a 16" primary mirror and matching secondary. Estimates were obtained from Paul's Machine Shop in Villa Grove for transport of the dome to Champaign.
All that was needed was an observatory site, since the current site is far from town (35 miles south) and a known target of vandals. Member Mike Rosenberger put an ad in the Farm Bureau newsletter. Several sites were considered, including one near a creek south of town and one near the Monticello Antenna Station, run by the university. The answer to our prayers came from the university who leased the club 20,000 square feet in the southwest corner of 80 acres of land south on county road 700E, southwest of Willard Airport. The land is used by several university departments and is also formally a glider landing field. Professor Larkin (who was concerned about nesting endangered birds), Arnie Schreiffer (Electrical Engineering), Don Wack (UI legal dept.), Des Neville, Mike Rosenberger and I met on the land to verbally agree on the transaction. The lease was signed in October of 1990.
All that was left was to actually build the observatory! The "construction" actually began on June 28, 1991 when Chuck Greenwood and I dismantled a park district model car racing platform to use the plywood. After much sweat, the plywood was deemed practically useless. New 4x8 sheets of 3/4-inch plywood were purchased and assembled into a concrete pier form on July 6 in the tool shed of Wayne and Nita Rosenberger of Pesotum. The base of the pier is 6x6-feet, with a top of 3x4-feet and it stands 12-feet high! Only four of those twelve feet will be above ground.
Chuck Greenwood used a transit instrument to sight Polaris and determine true north. Batter boards were then set-up on the dome site to guide the pier forms. Ground breaking occurred on the morning of August 14, 1991, using a backhoe and labor donated by the Champaign Park District. A deeper hole was dug and backfilled with rock, while the edges were flanged for the footings for the walls. Nearly 20 volunteers worked at the site this day, taking the four faces of the forms off Mike Rosenberger's rack wagon and placing them square in the hole and nailing them together. By the end of the day, the hole had filled with nearly 6" of water at the 12' level - and 1991 was considered a dry year! I paid dearly for this by wearing tennis shoes! Credit goes to Cliff and Dorothy Maduzia through the entire project for supplying a tent for shade during breaks and a supply of donuts!
The next two days brought Mike Rosenberger and his tractor out to backfill the hole and more bracing was added to secure the structure. No one in our group had built a concrete pillar as large as this! The concrete truck arrived on August 20. When concrete had creeped up the inside of the forms to within about a foot of the top, one of the corners broke free, filling the pit with concrete. Some say Scott Hough has never jumped so high, so fast! A second truck returned a few days later and finished the job. You have to really inspect the lower, northwest corner of the pier to tell that something happened. Tom Koberlein graciously donated tractor time to pull out the forms once the concrete had set.
On the same day concrete was being poured, a bid meeting was called by the Department of Conservation and Mr. Bill Taft. The meeting was held at Walnut Point State Park on the site of the old observatories. Desmond Neville, our CPD (Champaign Park District) advisor, Randy Schaffer, of the park staff, and I were in attendance. Mr. Taft directed that all bidders submitted two bids, one to have the dome taken to a land fill and the remaining building demolished and the other to have the dome taken to the CUAS site and the remainder demolished. Then he asked that the former bit be higher by several hundred dollars!! Thus we had Tom Cler and the workers of Paul's Machine Shop in Villa Grove move the dome to our site on September 20, just ten days after the bid was awarded for $2637.00. We also decided to "take" the ring that the dome rotated on, the top layer of curb blocks, and a steel mount that used to hold the shaft of the telescope's right ascension axis.
Before the dome found a final resting place, a foundation had to be dug. A 15-foot diameter circle would be difficult to create with a backhoe, so it was dug by hand at the expense of a lot of sweat, groaning, and Mark Bellon's pants! Mike Rosenberger picked a good day to be ill. The circular foundation was poured on September 3rd.
On September 7, Cliff Maduzia picked up the optics for the main telescope at Astrofest, held annually near Kankakee. Bill Buddington's 16- inch, f/4 full-thickness (3.5-inches) primary by hand and from a glass blank. The optics were tested at the Adler Planetarium glass shop by Bill and Jim Seevers and the coatings were added by Claussen's in Skokie. The total cost was roughly $1300. A 4x hyperbolic secondary was included. Cliff premiered the mirror (with great apprehension) at the September CUAS meeting at the Staerkel Planetarium. We teased him about ghostly scratches! I purchased a Parkes 18-inch diameter tube from Greg Terrance in New York (by way of an advertisement in Sky & Telescope magazine) and mirror cell, secondary holder, and spider were purchased from Ken Novak. We were ready to go!
Scott Hough, dressed like an alien from a Spielberg movie, sandblasted the rusty dome on the dreary morning of September 22. Water blasting didn't work well at all, but the sand (provided we kept it from binding up the machine) worked very nicely. . . .on Scott's hands. Nevertheless, the now clean dome was primed and painted with marine paint on the 23-24th and the holes from hunter's bullets were repaired. Four days later, volunteers from the Bricklayer Union local #17 under Dan McCall showed up to begin the brick foundation using half block. After backfilling, the rest of the walls and door frame were put up on October 19.
A call from Bob Lozar, of rural Philo, revealed that the mount that vandals had tossed down the stairway at Prairie Observatory ended up in his barn! The fork was broken, but the 4-inch shaft and bearings were in good condition. He donated these parts and the mount was put "back in" the dome in early November after stripping and painting. My garage smelled like spray paint for quite some time after that!
The big day was January 21, 1992 when Paul's Machine Shop returned to County Road 700E to put our "new" dome on our structure. The fit was tight at first and the ring (which was picked up in only two places) was bent out of shape a bit, but it looked great! The news media were out in full force, including Channel's 3 and 15. Visqueen and gravel were put down on the floor and a door was added that Chuck Greenwood's father "found."
After a cold winter, April 4th brought Lex, Mike, Chuck, John Kouka, Kathy, and Melanie Murphy out to build the wood deck. The deck is isolated from the mount to dampen out any vibrations. Stairs and "trap doors" were added as well. The trap doors are opened for easy access and can be lowered to allowed for a larger observing deck.
Scott and Cliff were busy on the telescope, with the first terrestrial views being of Bromley Hall as seen from Scott's Rolling Acres home. The f/15 Cassegrain system was installed in the dome on July 9 on Scott's homemade plywood fork, reinforced with angle iron from an old farm windmill. We were out of money by this time! A 6-inch, f/10 refractor was added using a Jaegers lens and cell donated by Mike Scott of Decatur and tube and focuser provided by D & G Optical with grant funds from the Slipher Committee. Scott also built the refractor since he owns a 6-inch Dobbins refractor. Rumor has it he switched telescopes on us! All this was in preparation for the July 11 opening date. Lex Lane and I used the services of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to create an invitation that was sent to park district board members, politicians, honored guests, and all CUAS members. The July 11 date had been set ahead of time and we just barely made it!
On Saturday, July 11 at 2pm Des Neville cut the red, white, and blue ribbon officially opening the C.U.A.S. Observatory. The officers were in attendance and the media was there again. Chuck Greenwood, park district general manager Bob Toalson, and I all spoke over a portable sound system. The officers were recognized and thanks were handed out to our honored guests. The weather looked threatening, but it never rained. The place looked great! The park district supplied us with $400 of paint to grace the building just a week before the opening. Jim Spencer's park district crew also added a sign near the road. Member Bruce Bateman donated time and truck to haul gravel for a driveway.
On Monday night a thunderstorm (complete with distant lightning) threatened the area, but Cliff was determined to do some early collimation tests of the optics. Those in attendance were Cliff Maduzia, Bob Vaiden, Kathy Seely, Lex and Jen Lane, and myself. He used an artificially lighted dome and clothes pins to make adjustments. Finally, at 9:15pm on this night, the light of the star Arcturus entered the slit of the observatory, just like it had done in 1933, and was viewed with the primary instrument. A fitting climax to a truly amazing journey. A 2-inch, 32mm ocular was used showed Arcturus sparkling with a slightly orange hue. No lights were turned on this night, just the dreams of some hard-working CUAS members who had reached the end of a mission. M13 was the first Messier object found before the incoming clouds caused an end of the first of countless sessions at the observatory. We all went home with smiles on our faces.
The C.U.A.S. Observatory is open to keyholding members of the group at any time. All members and their guests are invited to an open house on the Saturday evening closest to the New Moon. One week later (during First Quarter Moon) a public open house is held. All sessions are clouds permitting and are free of charge (donations are accepted). We invite you to share the universe with us.