History of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers
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Years of Transition, 1973-1978
Though the historical record is incomplete through 1974 due to the loss of important meeting
minutes (and without the second series of newsletters appearing until 1975), the flow of club
history becomes clearer with the appearance of several critical newspaper articles in 1973 and
afterwards. One item chronicled so well was the arrival of a club member by the name of Robert
(Bob) Finnigan. His appearance coincided with the appearance of Comet Kohoutek. A full page
of the December 1, 1973, Pantagraph was dedicated to these two luminaries.
Figure 15: Picture from Pantagraph feature article about Bob Finnigan
Comet Kohoutek was described aptly by Dr. William Kubinec, an Illinois Wesleyan faculty
member and member of the TCAA from 1973 through 1975. Bob was described in the newspaper
account as an atypical amateur astronomer. Bob, it was noted, had just purchased a Celestron 14-
inch telescope for $5,000 (sic)41 in March of 197342. He had it positioned on the top of his garage
at 1305 E. Oakland Avenue in Bloomington. There he had constructed a six-foot-diameter dome
resulting in the non-use of the garage. The reason – it had a concrete pier running up through its
center! That Bob was very dedicated to the pursuit of amateur astronomy was also evidenced by
the fact that he was the first to obtain a picture of Comet Kohoutek in the Twin Cities. The photo
was taken in the early morning hours of November 30, and was a culmination of over a hundred
hours of practice according to Bob. Bob’s presence also led to a growing number of field trips
starting with a visit to Fermi Lab in Batavia, IL, in 1973. Bob, Eugene (Gene) Sutton, and several
others participated in this visit.
By June of 1975 Bob had moved out of the eternal twilight glow of Bloomington to the
darker skies of Downs, Illinois, taking his 6-foot, custom-built dome with him. He constructed a
small, freestanding observatory43 with the help of some 10 club members, most notably Bill
Zaffiri – a carpenter by profession. Within a month of establishing his new observatory, Bob was
back at work photographing comets. Several of his photographs and a short article about Comet
Kubayashi-Berger-Milon appeared in the Pantagraph on July 28, 1975. A large picture of Comet
West also appeared in that paper on March 8, 1976. By the summer of 1977, Bob concluded that
the 6-foot dome was too small. He then bought a $3,500 10-foot diameter Ash Dome, and gave
his 6-foot, garage-top dome to Gary Rosenbaum then living in Lexington, IL. Gary Schultz who
had a truck transported the dome to Downs from Plainfield, IL. Another article describing Bob’s
activities and the club appeared in The Pantagraph on September 11, 1977. The article detailed
how the TCAA membership and the public were most welcome to observe through the
observatory’s equipment. Also at this time, Bob, working with member Tim Stone and his father
(a machinist), built a cold camera that could be loaded with dry ice to improve the sensitivity of
the single frame of film loaded within. According to Bob, only one picture was successfully made
with this camera – that of galaxy M81 – before it was “retired” as more trouble than it was worth.
Under the influence of Bob and Gary Rosenbaum44, the club began to observe more regularly
and grow substantially. Many of the earlier observing programs of the club had fallen to the
wayside as “space events” became more mundane, and the club membership began to drop –
heading for an all-time low. By the mid 1970’s membership had decreased to less than twenty,
with a smaller number still actively involved in observing.
At this time, Beehive Observatory at the Fissel Farm began to see less and less use. Better
equipment and darker skies were available to the membership elsewhere. Missing, too, was the
young group of amateur astronomers who had made most use of the facility over the years.
Weldon Schuette saw to the upkeep of the observatory grounds, but the building and its contents
became rather dilapidated according to Bob Finnigan who spoke about it years later.
Gary regularly publicized the TCAA with a brochure that he handed out at the restaurant he
managed45 and membership grew by 13 during the year that he served as president. With access
to new, more powerful equipment, the club reinstituted the Messier observing program in July
1975 under the leadership of Bob Finnigan. This was a follow-on to the first such observing
program established by David Williams many years before. In March 1976, the TCAA joined the
Astronomical League, a benefit of which was a formal Messier observing award program with a
certification and awards process. Under the Astronomical League program Bob Finnigan46,
Weldon Schuette, Gary Rosenbaum, and Tim Stone earned provisional awards for observing 70
or more M-objects during 1977.47 Tim received the top honors on July 17, 1979, for having
observed all 110 M-objects.
With Bob Finnigan’s observing equipment so readily accessible to club members, a
suggestion was made at the July 1976 general membership meeting to abandon the club’s
observatory located at the Fissel farm. This suggestion produced a bit of consternation among
older club members. It was the beginning of a classic battle between the “old guard” and the “new
Turks.” John Kieviet headed the old guard and Bob Finnigan the new Turks. Suggestions of “out
with the old and in with the new” were not welcome as they related to not only observing sites,
but to the procedures of the meetings as well. “Vital statistics” were deemed no longer
appropriate; emphasis on observation rather than socialization was promoted. Only after four
years would this contentious dispute be resolved.
In August talk of abandoning the Fissel site was tabled and a consensus reached to refurbish
the observatory building. Actual work was put off due to the approaching cold weather. The site
was all but abandoned, however, because the majority of club events and programs were being
carried out elsewhere in and about the Twin Cities. In May 1977, the decision to refurbish the
Fissel farm observatory was rescinded. During the 1960’s and 1970’s the town of Normal had
grown tremendously, as did the amount of light pollution caused by both the city and the
completion of Interstate 55 and its brightly lit interchanges. TCAA members realized this fact and
knew what it meant in relation to Beehive Observatory.
The following July the membership voted to remove the observatory because of “lack of
interest and other better sites available that are farther from the city and highway lights.” The
essentially unused observatory building was torn down on July 24, 1977, and its telescope
returned to Bob Mayo. The removal of the observatory provided much relief to Weldon Schuette
who had almost single handedly kept up the grounds surrounding the observatory for many years.
He did this on behalf of the club and in accord with the terms of the site agreement.
The OBSERVER of the Twin City Amateur Astronomers reappeared in March 1975 under the
editorship of Weldon Schuette. The reformulated newsletter chronicled observations of Skylab,
Pageos, and Apollo-Soyuz satellites – all observations that could be made without optical aid.
Observing sessions were held at Oakland School and at other sites. Club meetings, held every
third Thursday of the month, featured constellation and planet study, films, guest speakers, and
trips to the ISU Planetarium. Club members kept relatively busy.
With a new year, 1978, the club’s direction changed substantially. One of the more
memorable events was “The Great UFO Debate” between Eugene Sutton and Bob Finnigan. At
question was whether aliens were visiting the Earth in spacecraft. Gene took the affirmative side;
Bob the contrary. When the great debate arrived, Bob was prepared with lots of information taken
primarily from a book on the subject matter by famed debunker Phil Klass. Gene came with a
clipping from a recent edition of the National Enquirer. He reported that a UFO had been
observed to explode in orbit and that NASA could track the paths of the resulting fragments of
that explosion backward in time, gather up the fragments, and reassemble them to show proof of
alien visits to earth! The membership was a bit taken aback if not entirely bemused. Bob later
remarked, “I ended up debating myself.”
Under the leadership of Bob Finnigan, Gary Skinner, Mike Miller, and newly hired
planetarium director Carl J. Wenning, the club decided to institute public awareness displays at
local shopping centers. Somewhat earlier, Bob and Weldon Schuette had put up a display in
Eastland Mall. The display was a large painting by Weldon Schuette featuring Woodhenge at
Cohokia, IL. In addition, Carl and Bob Finnigan shared their interest with the general public in
November 1978 with five hours of radio talk show programming over WRBA radio working with
“disk jockey” Al Lundey. A month later Carl obtained lunar sample disk (featuring 4 rock
samples, a standard sampling of lunar regolith, and a small amount of “orange soil” from the
Apollo missions to the moon) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
for public display at Eastland Mall. The club had reached a turning point. A more pronounced
public service, awareness, and education became the by-words of the TCAA. A new era of
amateur astronomy was dawning.
Figure 16: Marie-Antoinette Observatory at Downs, IL
Figure 17: Marie-Antoinette Observatory with 10-foot Ash dome
Next Section:
Years of Public Service, 1979-1984
41 The observatory was named the Marie Antoinette Observatory after his wife.
42 Gary would later become well know as an amateur astronomer in the Tucson Area Amateur Astronomers (Arizona),
and also became a vendor of astronomical equipment.
43 The Sinorack Restaurant was located in south Bloomington just east of the present day Dairy Queen. The restaurant
burned down years later.
44 Bob earned his Messier Award in 1974 while a member of the Peoria Astronomical Society.
45 He managed a number of chain restaurants serving fried chicken.
46 Bob earned his Messier Award in 1974 while a member of the Peoria Astronomical Society. Art Grebner, a
renowned observer of the Peoria Astronomical Society visually certified all of Bob’s Messier observations.
47 See Appendix 8 for a listing of Astronomical League observing club award recipients.
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