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HISTORY
OF THE RAS Part 6 - The Dark Ages (1983 - 1991) by Bob Stephens |
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This is the sixth in a series of articles about the roots of the Riverside Astronomical Society. Other chapters can be found on our web site at: http://www.rivastro.org/ras-history.php. I have relied upon research into old bulletins, interviews with former RAS members, letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, magazine articles, and personal recollection. This chapter is “The Dark Ages” not because it was a bad time for the club (although some negative things did happen), but rather because there is surprisingly very little information available in the club’s historical documents. I have very few photographs and do not even have a complete set of bulletins; almost an entire year is missing. Also, I was not very active in the years of the late 1980’s and was not present for some of the events.
Holmes Two
Most of the fall, winter and spring star parties were held at the Gavalian Hills site. During the summer, the club sometimes went to Camp Oakes or the Angeleus Oakes Heliport. The highlight of 1984 was the October Star Party at Stony Ridge Observatory behind Mt. Wilson. It was a cloudy and stormy day. Most RAS members attempting the trip gave up before ascending into the mountains. That just left six RAS members (including yours truly) to have the use of the 30-inch, F/5 telescope for the night, with clouds covering the LA Basin and lapping at their heals. We enjoyed the view of the Ring Nebula’s central star and many other great sights until dawn. In 1986, the RAS went to Joshua Tree for Star Parties in May and November.
For the RAS, 1985 was the lead up to the return of Halley’s Comet. This event had been anticipated for several years, even though it was not a particularly good apparition. The comet first became visible in August 1985, and the public quickly became enchanted with the concept. In the last three months of the year, several Star Parties were held at the Gavalian Hills site and at schools. Hundreds of people attended these Star Parties.
A New Crew In 1987, the club officers almost completely changed with Tom Fangrow becoming the President and Malcolm Ridley the Vice President. Cliff Holmes switched over to be the Chief Observer as well as retaining the RTMC Directorship. The new officers along with a couple others were very active in pursuing deep sky observing Star Parties in the desert. These activities lasted a couple of years, but no more than a few members journeyed to these Star Parties. Local Star parties were held at the Gavalian Hills site.
In 1988, the RAS also went to great Star Parties at Onyx Summit and Ford Observatory as well as a tour of Goldstone. They also had a very successful Astronomy Day at the Riverside Plaza in April. There was some talk of doing outreach programs at schools, but nothing came of it. There was again a discussion of purchasing a club observing site or leasing the observatory at Camp Oakes. Neither plan went far. Cliff Holmes arranged a special Star Party/Workshop at Camp Oakes in July and a very special Morrison Lecture featuring Walter Scott Houston of Sky & Telescope in February. This was a very special meeting that celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the club and honored many contributors of the past including a touching moment with Harold Kaiser, the founder of the Riverside Astronomical Society. Mike Sugarman brought many special prizes from Celestron. Cliff Holmes was extra busy putting on the 20th RTMC in 1988, honoring all the special people from prior years. This conference was also notable for the many large telescopes including the 31-inch owned by the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. This was also the second RTMC to have snow. This conference was also important for some behind the scenes infighting. Cliff Holmes was greatly upset when Tom Fangrow attempted to use newly elected Board of Directors to control Cliff’s activities at the RTMC. Cliff Holmes was the appointed Director of the RTMC and Tom felt that all important decisions should get the blessing of the Board of Directors before being implemented. Having started and nurtured the conference for 20 years, Cliff felt that his authority was being impinged. He threatened to quit after the conference was over. Eventually Cliff and Tom declared a truce, one that would last for only a year. Randall Wilcox retired as President and Bulletin Editor at the end of 1988 to start a new job as a teacher. Tom Fangrow again became President leading to his final clash with Cliff Holmes. The 1989 RTMC had an impressive 1,762 amateur astronomers attend. They heard Debbie Byrd, the originator and producer of "StarDate," gave the Keynote Address and saw David Levy receive the Clifford W. Holmes Award. However, it was not a happy time for Cliff because Tom Fangrow again attempted to excerpt control over the conference activities. This lead to a class of wills because Tom did not have unanimous backing from the Board of Directors and did not have the support of the volunteers who actually ran the RTMC. Cliff left the conference with the conviction that he never again would allow himself to be put in this position. Within a month, Cliff was meeting with an attorney to arrange to have the RTMC incorporated as its own separate entity. Then, per the club Bylaws, Cliff called for a special election of the members to decide if the conference would be spun off into a separate corporation. That vote was held in August 1989. Cliff and others presented arguments that the RTMC had grown too big and complicated for a single club to run. The RAS had gotten help from the San Bernardino Valley Amateur Astronomers in the past, but that help had dwindled away. Cliff said that in order for the conference to reach its potential, the RAS had to solicit help and experts from around the west coast. Cliff also argued that the biggest focus of the RAS had become putting on the RTMC, which in effect, stagnated the potential of the club. He said that the RAS would continue to benefit financially and offered a special guaranteed percentage of the profits for the first three years. Cliff also pointed out that if the RAS did not vote to separate the RTMC, he would resign and start his own conference. Tom and others argued that the RTMC was property of the RAS and that the club should not part with such a valuable asset. In the end, the club voted to spin off the RTMC.In the end, this was the wisest thing to do at a number of levels. Cliff Holmes was a nationally known and celebrated amateur astronomer. He had all of the contacts needed to put on the conference, including attracting the top speakers and getting publicity in the national astronomy magazines. By far, the core of volunteers supported Cliff and would have left to support his new conference. Unfortunately, this ugly situation resulted in the resignation of several of the RAS officers including Tom Fangrow and his wife who was acting as the Treasurer at the time. In the end, Cliff’s vision of the future of the conference came to be with many prominent amateur and professional astronomers coming to assist in organizing the conference and the RAS still receiving a fairly significant source of revenue from it. A New Era In September 1989, the club elected several new directors and officers with Susanne (Mau) Borzone becoming President and Randall Wilcox becoming Chairman of the Board. Cheryl (Hanscom) Wilcox took over the duties of publishing the bulletin giving it a new look that exists to this day.
Through the remainder of 1989 and 1990, this group was very energetic in planning activities for the club. Susanne instituted board planning meetings and the annual calendar. Showing the level of interest, 20 members show up to planning meeting to discuss the future where it was agreed to purchase a 17-inch Coulter Dobsonian for use at star parties. Cliff arranged to have Ed Krupp and David Levy come and speak to the club. Don Davis came and spoke about his space art and Steve McArthur of SpectraSource came and spoke about a new thing called a CCD Camera that they were developing for the amateur market. Once again, the club discussed buying a new observing site. Camp Oakes was used for star parties in the summer. During 1990, a new star party site was picked at Jack Rabbit Trail. The RAS held a Messier Marathon with the Pomona Valley Amateur Astronomers and again had Astronomy Day at the Riverside Plaza. Later in 1990, Randall Wilcox hosted a telescope workshop before several meetings covering many topics about getting started using telescopes. The first RTMC held as a separate organization was a big success with 40 RAS members helping out. In July, the club took a bus trip to Mt. Palomar where they toured the 200-inch telescope. In August, the RAS had a Starbeque with Pomona club in August for Perseid Meteor shower. In 1991, Susanne Mau retired as President and Dennis Fandrich took over. Steve Meyering became Vice President in June. The focus of the club for 1991 was the Total Solar Eclipse in Mexico and Hawaii in July 1991. Three talks were held about the solar eclipse in the first half of the year. Many RAS members went and several meetings were devoted to coverage for the remainder of the year.
Late in 1991, Bill Seavey took over as Star Party Chairman. He started doing some school outreach programs. Hundreds of students continued to come to the Star Parties at Jack Rabbit Trail. The RAS had an April trip to Rueben Fleet Space Theater. The RAS also once again held Astronomy Day at Riverside Plaza. In June, we had workshop on viewing Jupiter after the meeting. Another Member Education program was started in midyear and went on for a couple of years. This program was a bit overcomplicated with tests and levels of experience. The RAS had an overnight campout at to Joshua Tree in July. Only six members came and met students, but it was a start. The club went to Camp Oakes in September and Mount Palomar in October, as well as the usual Angelus Oakes Star Parties. Despite this
flurry of activities, the membership renewals were down. This was perhaps
caused by the recession, lingering resentment over the RTMC, increased
dues, or all of the above. In our next episode, you shall see how the
club dealt with this issue. More
History: Roots of RAS
1957-1964 1965-1968 1969-1974
1975-1982
1992-1998 |
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