I
have been making a big effort to accumulate the historical documents telling
the story of the RAS before they become lost to time. From multiple sources,
primarily Cheryl and Randall Wilcox, I have obtained about 90% of all
the Prime Focus’ published. In addition to remembrances from Jackie
Holmes and Ashley McDermott, I have also obtained several dozen newspaper
articles, primarily published in the Press Enterprise. From the 1970’s
on we are still fortunate to have first hand accounts from active members
of the club.
All of this
is being accumulated into computer files which presently fill an entire
CD-Rom. However, rather than just have the raw data available, it is best
to put these events into historical context, especially while some of
the participants are still available to interview. The last time I published
an article on the history of the RAS, it dealt with the society from its
inception in 1957 through the years that Harold Kaiser was President.
There was not much documentation for that time period, but as we move
into the next phase of the RAS, information becomes more plentiful.
The RAS moved
into a new era in the early 1960’s when Clifford and Jackie Holmes
joined the club. Jackie reports that they joined about a year before Cliff
was elected President in 1965. Much of the known information about the
club comes from a newsletter that Jackie Holmes started writing. The first
issue was published in April 1965 and reported that the RAS was hosting
Dr. Robert Richardson who was speaking on the subject of comets.
Meetings
From the mid
1960’s and through the early 1970’s the RAS met on Friday
nights at Victoria Savings & Loan, located on the edge of the Riverside
Plaza. In addition to having astronomers from local observatories as lecturers,
Cliff Holmes arranged for several Morrison Lectures. This lecture series
sponsored by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific provided a $100 Honorarium.
Between 1965 and 1968, the RAS hosted at least 10 Morrison Lectures. In
addition to Dr. Richardson, Tommy Cragg of Mt. Wilson and Charles Chapen
of Table Mountain were some of the well-known astronomers who came to
Riverside.
Star
Parties
Star
Parties were held at various sites in the Gavalin Hills, which was
still a relatively dark site just south of Riverside.
In addition, many local Public Star Parties were held at the Jurupa
Cultural Center and the Riverside Plaza. The club typically had
two public star parties each month.
Several
overnight Star Parties were also held. Most notably, star parties
were held at Camp Angelus, Onyx Summit, and at Joshua Tree National
Monument. Two trips were also taken to Stoney Ridge Observatory,
which has a 30” telescope behind Mt. Wilson. |

Cliff
Holmes at a star party
October 1965 |
Comet
Ikeya-Seki

Comet Ikea-Seki
photo by Cliff Holmes |
At
the time of the appearance of this magnificent comet in 1965, we do
not have copies of the newsletter. However, we do have several articles
which were published in the Press Enterprise. The comet made its best
appearance early in October 1965, and was the subject of that month’s
meeting with a lecture being given by the Chief Observer, Warren Estes.
The comet was not visible as it passed just 450,000 miles from the
Sun on October 21, 1965. However, as it reappeared in the morning
sky late in October, the tail was reported to be as long as the handle
of the Big Dipper. The comet was then observed for at least a couple
more weeks. The RAS had several star parties to observe the comet,
and at least on one occasion, bused a bunch of people out to the Gavalin
Hills very early in the morning. |
Tours
During these
early years, the RAS had a tour of Rockwell where they got to climb inside
of a working mockup of an Apollo capsule, a tour of Goldstone Radio Telescope,
and two tours of Table Mountain Observatory. Table Mountain was even difficult
to get into back in the 1960’s.
RAS members at tour of Goldstone Tracking Station
Western
Amateur Astronomers
Back in the
1960’s and 1970’s, the Western Amateur Astronomers (WAA) was
an active consortium of astronomy clubs on the west coast. Their purpose
was to spread astronomy on the west coast and provide a forum in which
astronomy clubs can interact. Cliff and Jackie became very active in the
WAA with Cliff serving as Vice President and then President. They held
a conference each year in Northern or Southern California, and once in
Hawaii.
Grazing
Occultations
Jackie
Holmes reports that in 1966 David Durnham gave a talk to the Western
Amateur Astronomers at their San Francisco convention about the
value of measuring grazing occultations of bright stars by the Moon.
This is where the limb of the moving Moon slides along a bright
star occulting it with mountains. At the time, the Apollo program
was just getting underway and not much was known about the Moon.
The Moon’s orbit and size was not precisely known, and by
measuring a star sliding behind mountains and valleys along the
edge of the Moon, its profile could be accurately determined. More
importantly, theories about the Moon’s orbit could be refined
with an important beneficiary being the Apollo program.
|
Unrolling a mile of telephone cable |

Tone Generator |
These
grazing occultations occurred several times a year in Southern California.
Durnham described how a club in Milwaukee set up a picket line of
small telescopes perpendicular to the path of the graze and obtained
timings as the star disappeared and reappeared.
Cliff
saw an opportunity for the club to participate in science and have
fun in the process. He attacked it with a vengeance. The RAS started
by building a twelve tone generators that were attached to a mile
long telephone wire. To one end a tape recorder was attached that
had a short-wave radio inputting the WWV time signal. Each telescope
station’s tone generator emitted a different pitch tone relating
to the altitude of the mountain occulting a star. Each observing
station represented a cord slicing through a mountain or valley
on the Moon. By plotting the different tones on graph paper one
could chart the shape of subtle details of the mountains or valleys
on the limb of the Moon. |
A notice appeared
in the November 1966 Bulletin:
Grazing
Occultation Observations
The
evenings of November 17th at 7:44 p.m. and November 18th at 9:32 p.m.,
grazing occultations of two separate stars will take place. We are planning
a club project to time and record these occultations. We are in the
process of constructing twelve tone generators to be attached to a mile
long cable of discarded wire obtained from the Pacific Telephone Company.
The
events will take place south of Riverside, one on a line between Gavilan
Hills and Beaumont and the other a little farther south (exact locations
not yet determined). We will need a minimum of 12 Telescopes (any size)
and people who can help can help with the cable communications. We need
a portable tape recorder and short wave radio. If we are able to complete
this project, we will be the second society in the U.S.A. with this
type of equipment.
Your
support and help in this project is sorely needed. Hear complete details
at the November 4th meeting.
Throughout
the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the club did a series
of grazing occultations throughout Southern California. It is not
know how many were done, but Bill Smith, then Vice President thinks
that 25 to 30 were attempted. The bulletins make mention of 13 attempts
between 1965 and 1968 and 18 overall. RAS members often left at 2:30
AM arriving on site at 4:00 AM, rolled 4,800 feet of cable off the
back of a pickup truck, connected 12 tone generators and a tape recorder,
observed, repacked, and headed home for work or school. We do not
know how many of these observing attempts were successful; but we
do have a newspaper article indicating that one did not succeed due
to equipment failure. We also have a mention in a bulletin that two
in a row (consecutive nights) were clouded out. However, we know that
many were successful. |
Graze Recording Station |
Cliff Holmes
at grazing occultation |
In
an interview in 1996, Bill Smith, who was Vice President in that
time period, recalled the events at one of the grazes:
“We
were on Highway 395 near the Air Force Base. We had all of the tubes
lined up pointed towards the eastern horizon, which was overlooking
the base. We were getting ready to time the occultation when all
of a sudden these MP’s came roaring up in jeeps wanting to
know what these mortars were doing pointed at the ammunition dump.
So we explained what was going on and a couple of them stuck around
to look through the telescopes.”
He then
recalled another graze:
“For
people who knew Cliff and his attitude about things; another time
we were out in the high desert, it was a 4 o’clock in the
morning deal, with a waning Moon to do a grazing occultation. The
sky was just crystal clear. We got all set up, got the telescopes
on line, and here is one cloud, about the size of your fist at arms
length, formed right next to the Moon. It drifted over the Moon,
and we waited and it didn’t clear. After the occultation,
the cloud kind of evaporated and Cliff was just fit to be tied.
On the way home he kept saying “somebody doesn’t like
me . . . somebody doesn’t like me.” |

RAS members at grazing occultation
Randy Wilcox
participated in several of these grazes, and even reduced some of the
data. I remember being at a meeting in 1975 or 1976 where Cliff played
the tape of the ascending and descending tones representing the edge of
a mountain which obscured the star. I also participated in the last grazing
occultation done by the in September 1977. In that case we were on the
south side of the picket line and for us, the star missed the Moon entirely.

Results
from September 1973 graze
With all of
the events, meetings, star parties, and grazing occultations going on,
it is a wonder that had time to catch their breath. However, more was
yet to come, for late in 1968, they built an observatory, and things really
got busy.
More
History: Roots of RAS
1957-1964 1969-1974 1975-1982
1983-1991
1992-1998
|