by Dr. Arthur Babcock |
|
Florence and Ralph Meeker. |
| MIRA has long benefited from the generosity of its many Friends, who
contribute their time and talent as well as financial support. Ralph and Florence Meeker
were especially helpful during their long association with MIRA. Until his death in 1989, Ralph Meeker was a tireless volunteer, managing MIRA’s 14" Celestron telescope at star parties and traveling so often to Chews Ridge that he acquired a special vehicle for that purpose. Many of the photographs chronicling MIRA’s history are from his camera. Florence Meeker worked for many years in the MIRA office on financial and other administrative affairs. In the late 1980s, Ralph had ordered a 17.5-inch Newtonian mirror from Coulter Optics, planning to build a telescope in which to mount it. In 1999, Florence generously donated this optics set (primary and secondary mirrors) to MIRA, to be made into a telescope by the MIRA amateur group, the Astronomical Society of the Central Coast. |
|
ASCC president Paul Franks stands next to the recently completed 17.5" Dobsonian telescope. |
| A volunteer construction
team headed by ASCC President Paul Franks worked many evenings in the MIRA storage shed to
construct this telescope, patterned on the Dobsonian design. The optics were installed in
July and the telescope, resplendent in many coats of varnish, was pointed skyward for the
first time. Paul reports that the images are of excellent quality. The telescope will be baptized the Meeker Telescope, to recognize the generosity and dedication of Ralph and Florence Meeker. A dedication ceremony will be held at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History on 17 September, immediately preceding Dr. Craig Chester’s lecture on the Star of Bethlehem, which takes place at 2:00 P.M. |
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