European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 22, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Scope for adventure by John Noble Wilford York Tolmei i Feve created an said Bruce and ii adventure has to do with the untried and then he and his Small group of astronomers Are indeed they have gone out on their As a kind of scientific bucking the trend of government supported big and erected unimportant Telescope on the coastal mountains near to make a bold dream come their adventure began in the Spring of 1971 when they were graduate students at Case Western Reserve univer sity in they were finishing their theses at a time when there was a glut of astronomers about 800 research astronomers in the and boo graduate Stu dents seeking to squeeze into the so they dreamed up an instead of taking just any academic probably one with Little or no Chance of doing they decided to Pool their meager work at Odd Lota to save More and build their own they pledged themselves to their common Effort for at least two u has taken but the results have exceeded heir expectations and earned the admiration of establishment after Weaver and Albert with their headed for californian Monterey Peninou the arid climate and stable air in us mountains com Bine to produce some of the Best astronomical seeing conditions in the Continental United they selected a Telescope site on Chews Elevation in in padres National the others followed soon and they incorporated themselves As the Monterey Institute for research in the Otter astronomers in us original group were Craig Hazel Ross and Cynthia and Nelson another Young Lee touted recently after graduation from the University of California at Santa no astronomer members Are two Sandra Weaver and Ann and Donna they had la Salve us they rejected Ike notion of a Rural com Mune with some and a Inch Telescope in Che Weaver because id pm some time on a Arm i we Young and knew Fie Mother at boors Yea Pat in add Bow much return y a the lived separately and took what Ever jobs they could leaching at nearby colleges and a suite research at poet com Puter work at the naval postgraduate school in Monte Rey or night desk clerk at a state Park conference they became equal partners in a mail order Book service called through Thrift and plus some timely they pursued their their first Cash donation came from William the Observatory director at Case Western a presentation to the 1972 meeting of the american astronomical society brought endorsements from Many prominent which led to More Grants and the use of a High Quality 36inch Telescope Martin Schwann held of Princeton University arranged for the new Institute to borrow the Mirror for an indefinite it had been intended is a backup for a National aeronautics and space administration project but never we had started with something of a credibility prob Chester but Wilh each step we became More obviously decisions at each step were made by the group As a often after hours of discussion late into the no one person is considered Weaver explained we almost never take what youd Call if a question of Only the astronomers la us group u its a general nil the members divisions do but be cause were in ced to work together n closely they never become Kings fading we dont have that once they had the the Young astronomers got the optical sciences Center of the University of Arizona to make some modifications at no charge and obtained a Grant from a private the research to construct the steel mount and other mechanical elements of the enthusiasm so infected Frank a Telescope designer associated with lick that he volunteered his services essentially and he just happened to have a who owned a steel construction the Mel Beimer design incorporated the latest computerized control systems and elec tronic detectors to enhance incoming nearly All the instrumentation was donated by the Institute rented an office on a Back Street of Monte Rey and moved in a donated Library and a donated com the Forest service approved Chews Ridge As a Telescope and army engineers graded a Road to the Summit As a training this enabled Weaver and Chester to go camping there one night in August it was us tint Tine any of bad teen the sky irom our Chester 1c was pretty there directly overhead was the Northern and suddenly we saw a Star that didst it was a Nova i playing the first naked Eye Nova in 30 ii that not an heres no Nuh thing As an the Telescope was completed and installed at a Tempo lower Elevation site last there it is under going what Merville Calls the debugging one Day recently Nelson Irvine rolled Back the roof of the Frame which is no bigger than a one car and Merville checked the motors and the finder a halting As he this Telescope is Worth a Quarter or a third of a Mil lion if wed had somebody build it the convention Al we did it for less than and its on the forefront of Telescope i cant Tell you what it feels like to have a Telescope in my its been a Long makes in More anxious to get on with the the rest includes plans to resurvey stars in the Henry Draper one of the Standard reference works on toe temperature and Luminosity classifications of Start in the part of the Galaxy nearest the the institutes work should complement a Genera revision at Theca a i being directed by Nancy Houk of the University of it May be some before the institutes astronomers pm devote full time to any re search they Are now Busy knocking on the doors of local Busi Nesses and major corporations for contributions to pay for building their permanent Observatory on Chews they Are not opposed to a Grant or two from the gov fill should but they Are against heavy dependence on government which they say makes them vulnerable to Feaster Farrone Merville estimated that the Observatory would Cost u we do a lot of the work ourselves and scrounge around to gel things the astronomers nope to establish an endowment fund so that they can afford to quit their jobs and Lead the kind of life they had dreamed of Back in a life of studying the stars with a research Telescope of their Page 12 the stars and stripes it astronomer Bruce waver using