Would you consider a 23” refractor a good club scope? I would! One of my astronomy clubs, the Roper Mountain Astronomers, holds their monthly meetings at the Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville, SC. We have a good relationship with the RMSC, supporting the Friday Starry Nights weekly at the Planetarium/observatory. This allows us regular access to the big 23” Clark refractor at the Charles Daniel Observatory. This telescope is the sister to the 24” At Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and also has notoriety as the telescope mentioned at Princeton University, in the radio drama “War of the Worlds”.

23″ Clark Refractor -image by Andrew Cooke

After our last club meeting, some of us took the opportunity to look through the big scope. Now, the unfortunate part of this story is that this beautiful instrument is not far from the center of the growing city of Greenville, with its accompanying light pollution. That said, we’ve had some wonderful views of the planets and brighter objects in the sky. Its native focal length, around 10,000mm, makes it tough for wide field objects, but compact objects like globular clusters fill the field nicely. On one occasion the telescope operator, club member and RMSC staff, Lee Ott, and I had the pleasure of catching a glimpse of Stephen’s Quintet galaxy cluster high overhead on a moonless night, from within the city.

Last Thursday evening, the highlight object was Saturn. Even with the moon at almost 1st quarter phase Saturn provided a pleasant view in the eyepiece. The five smaller moons that circle close to the planet popped out immediately. The Cassini division was crisp. I was even able to discern the shadow of the rings on the planet’s disk. Even the cloud bands on the disk of the planets showed themselves with the muted colors you see in some of the better planetary images found on the internet, or maybe captured with your own imaging equipment.

Of even greater significance than the views through this scope is the thought of the historical scientific work, and the great astronomers of the past who may have used this instrument to help shape the knowledge of the universe we share today.

If you find yourself in or around Greenville, SC on a Friday night, try to make plans to visit the RMSC. They have two planetarium shows and viewing through the big scope, as well as others on the lawn, provided in support by members of the Roper Mountain Astronomers. Even on cloudy nights Lee offers a tour of the observatory and provides some of the the history behind this great scope.

This beautiful image of the telescope was taken by club member Andrew Cooke.

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