by Jane Houston Jones
My nephew Aaron is one of the bay area amateur astronomers who observes at Lake Sonoma. He was there on the night of the Leonid Meteor Shower, alone with his family and the family of a classmate from his first grade class at Healdsburg Elementary. On Leonid night this year, the two families drove to the Lone Pine parking lot, found it totally empty at midnight, parked on the road outside the lot, since they thought they would leave before dawn, walked in with sleeping bags, snacks and observed the Leonids in an amazingly empty space until 4:00 a.m.
On the night he won the local science fair last spring (first item on http://www.whiteoaks.com) we took Aaron to Lake Sonoma to celebrate afterwards. Aaron used my 17.5 incher that night, and asked for paper and pencil so he could sketch the star shapes, craters and Martians he saw at the eyepiece. He has shown an interest in astronomy, even though he is only 6 years old. His room is filled with astronomy posters, two lunar maps, and drawings of moons and planets, martians and rockets and so I asked his parents if I could get him a telescope for Christmas. Well there's also rocks, a pirate ship, a castle, and many mushrooms he is identifying with his new Mushrooms Demystified atlas in his room.
A few months ago there was a Pierre Schwaar 6 inch reflector on E-bay apparantly, and an interested buyer contacted me for advice. I told him I wished I had seen the ad myself because I would have bought it on the spot. I own one of these little six inchers which I call Red Dwarf. I just love this little easy-to-setup, easy-to-use, indestructable 6 inch reflector. It is the perfect first telescope, and it is perfect for little kids because even when pointed at the zenith, they do not need a ladder or stepstool..
I'd buy more from him but Pierre Schwaar died last year, so the only way to get one nowadays is if one ocasionally pops up on the used market. I've been trying to locate one but gave up and I started making Aaron a 6 incher. I finished the f/7 mirror and had it aluminized, and, well the guy who bought the telescope on e-bay sent me a note ...there was another one on astro mart!
I contacted the seller, and offered to buy it. To make a long story short, it turns out I have used this telescope before. I was with Pierre Schwaar on the day he delivered this same little telescope to a serviceman stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu a couple years ago. This serviceman has moved to the east coast and was selling his Schwaar Companion.
It arrived a few days after Thanksgiving, and I've been using it alot, you know, to test it out. It's been used out on the sidewalks of San Francisco with John Dobson at its eyepiece twice.
On Christmas morning, Mojo and I drove to Healdsburg, and placed the telescope and eyepiece case filled with sketch pad, graphites, three low power eyepieces, barlow, moon filter and telrad on the front porch. Then we went in and opened presents. Santa had brought Aaron a planisphere.
We asked Aaron to step out on the porch, and his eyes just about popped out of his head! He looked at the telescope, and was just amazed. He asked if Santa Claus had contributed to the telescope, because he spotted one of the reindeer bells on the floor nearby. "Santa must have known about it or why else would he have brought me a planisphere?", reasoned Aaron.
Unfortunately it was raining, but so we took the telescope on another porch, and Aaron set it up for the first time. We showed him how to align the telrad, and to put on an eyepiece. Then for an hour he observed crows in a pine tree, robins in a redwood tree, the top of a church steeple nearby. He took out his sketch pad and sketched all of these things. Then he put the front cover on the telescope, replaced the eyepiece with a film canister/collimating device, turned off the telrad, and came inside.
Tonight Aaron is visiting his cousin Kristen in Anaheim. Kristen has her own Schwaar 6 inch reflector and will no doubt be letting Aaron point at Saturn and Jupiter tonight, since it's clear down there.
I can't wait to go back to Lake Sonoma with Aaron, or to the Sonoma County Young Astronomers star parties in Kenwood so we can observe together through our 6 inch reflectors.