Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2024 3:00:35 GMT -6
I'm jumping in and making the first non-welcome/non-rules related post!
In honor of the two people most responsible for our club even existing, I'm going to make the post about them. Wally Pursell and Craig Brenden were two people that were brought together by their love of astronomy. They were both lifelong aficionados of the telescope and decided Baton Rouge needed a club. I'll not recount that whole history, but it was that seed they planted in the community that has grown into the wonderful organization we are today.
Unfortunately, Wally is no longer with us, but he got to see many years of club activities and growth. Especially the birth of the partnership between BREC, our club and LSU in creating the Highland Road Park Observatory. I'm happy to have had him as a friend, too. One of my favorite personal stories about Wally was from an educational outreach event we were doing. I had my brand new 10" Dobsonian telescope out for helping with viewing and Wally was just making his way around the kids pointing out various night sky objects. It was dark, of course. At one point, I had removed my 1.25" eyepiece adapter from the focuser to try one of my 2" eyepieces. I got caught answering a question and Wally, always ready to help, grabbed an eyepiece from my case and tried to put it in the focuser. Well, he didn't know I had pulled out the adapter and the eyepiece he tried to install was a 1.25" eyepiece. All I heard was a loud *thunk* as the eyepiece fell right into the tube and then Wally doing an admirable job of not cursing in front of children!
There was nothing to do but laugh. In the dark, he still didn't know exactly what had happened and was so embarrassed when he realized. (He was the most precise, careful person on the planet when it came to handling equipment.) Fortunately, the scope had been pointed close to parallel to the ground so the eyepiece never made its way down to the primary mirror. Every time I see down into that tube I can see the dull scratch marks and it makes me smile to think of my friend.
I'm very happy to say that Craig is still with us. Although, he's no longer WITH us as much as he used to be because he and his wife moved out of state recently to be closer to their children and grandkids. He is a consummate educator and I can't fathom a guess at how many hours of volunteering he put in doing educational outreach in the name of the club or the Observatory. (On top of all that, he was a public school science teacher!) Over the years he's had hopes and dreams for the club. Some have come to pass and others are dreams he's passed on to us. He's still very proud of the club he helped create and even though he's a few states away now, he is still brimming with ideas of how the club could improve this, that or the other thing.
Of course, I'm also very happy to have him as a friend, too. Our club meetings may be a bit shorter since he left (the man has a way with words that rivals MY way with long emails and, apparently, forum posts!), but they truly aren't quite the same without him there. You could always count on a smart question or two from him for the guest speaker and you could absolutely count on a little side story about some astronomical tidbit from the past few decades. His legacy in the Baton Rouge community is our club and we'll be sure it stays as vibrant and healthy as possible so he won't be disappointed when he comes back for a visit!
So, those are our two Founders and those are my friends. If you're lucky, you've come across one or the other at some time. If so, I'm sure you learned a thing or two from them. I know I have!
In honor of the two people most responsible for our club even existing, I'm going to make the post about them. Wally Pursell and Craig Brenden were two people that were brought together by their love of astronomy. They were both lifelong aficionados of the telescope and decided Baton Rouge needed a club. I'll not recount that whole history, but it was that seed they planted in the community that has grown into the wonderful organization we are today.
Unfortunately, Wally is no longer with us, but he got to see many years of club activities and growth. Especially the birth of the partnership between BREC, our club and LSU in creating the Highland Road Park Observatory. I'm happy to have had him as a friend, too. One of my favorite personal stories about Wally was from an educational outreach event we were doing. I had my brand new 10" Dobsonian telescope out for helping with viewing and Wally was just making his way around the kids pointing out various night sky objects. It was dark, of course. At one point, I had removed my 1.25" eyepiece adapter from the focuser to try one of my 2" eyepieces. I got caught answering a question and Wally, always ready to help, grabbed an eyepiece from my case and tried to put it in the focuser. Well, he didn't know I had pulled out the adapter and the eyepiece he tried to install was a 1.25" eyepiece. All I heard was a loud *thunk* as the eyepiece fell right into the tube and then Wally doing an admirable job of not cursing in front of children!
There was nothing to do but laugh. In the dark, he still didn't know exactly what had happened and was so embarrassed when he realized. (He was the most precise, careful person on the planet when it came to handling equipment.) Fortunately, the scope had been pointed close to parallel to the ground so the eyepiece never made its way down to the primary mirror. Every time I see down into that tube I can see the dull scratch marks and it makes me smile to think of my friend.
I'm very happy to say that Craig is still with us. Although, he's no longer WITH us as much as he used to be because he and his wife moved out of state recently to be closer to their children and grandkids. He is a consummate educator and I can't fathom a guess at how many hours of volunteering he put in doing educational outreach in the name of the club or the Observatory. (On top of all that, he was a public school science teacher!) Over the years he's had hopes and dreams for the club. Some have come to pass and others are dreams he's passed on to us. He's still very proud of the club he helped create and even though he's a few states away now, he is still brimming with ideas of how the club could improve this, that or the other thing.
Of course, I'm also very happy to have him as a friend, too. Our club meetings may be a bit shorter since he left (the man has a way with words that rivals MY way with long emails and, apparently, forum posts!), but they truly aren't quite the same without him there. You could always count on a smart question or two from him for the guest speaker and you could absolutely count on a little side story about some astronomical tidbit from the past few decades. His legacy in the Baton Rouge community is our club and we'll be sure it stays as vibrant and healthy as possible so he won't be disappointed when he comes back for a visit!
So, those are our two Founders and those are my friends. If you're lucky, you've come across one or the other at some time. If so, I'm sure you learned a thing or two from them. I know I have!