By George Loyer
![new telescope at RFO]()
The night sky will get a little clearer now that a shiny, new, larger telescope has been installed at Robert Ferguson Observatory in Kenwood. The telescope will be the centerpiece of public observing held every month at the observatory, located in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.
Steve Follett, Mark Hillestad, Larry McCune and George Loyer of the Valley of the Moon Observatory Association (VMOA) built the new telescope in their garages, including fabricating a computer-controlled mounting, as well as grinding, polishing and figuring the 40-inch mirror, which was then coated by Viavi Solutions, formerly JDSU, Optical Coating Labs.
Easily the largest telescope in Sonoma County and possibly California dedicated to public access as opposed to teaching or research, the installation marks the completion of a more than 12-year project to bring a more powerful telescope to the community, and make it easier for visitors to enjoy the night sky.
This telescope mirror is nearly twice the diameter of the former 24-inch mirror, which has been serving the public for many years at the observatory. Doubling the diameter of the mirror quadruples the light gathering power for the eye, and combined with the highly reflective coating, brings very faint objects within the grasp of a visual observer. Past visitors to the observatory will remember climbing a ladder to look through an eyepiece on the 24-inch telescope, and a docent constantly adjusting the telescope. The team of telescope makers designed the new instrument to be highly accessible to the public. Instead of climbing a ladder to reach the eyepiece, observers are able to keep their feet firmly planted on the floor. Instead of a docent manually adjusting the telescope from time to time to keep an object in view, the telescope finds and tracks objects using a computer-controlled mount.
![Group at Viavi Solutions lab]()
Tests of the telescope in the observatory over the past two months have revealed remarkable views of objects like the Great Orion Nebula, bright star clusters embedded in the Milky Way, and Messier 82, an irregular galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Big Dipper). The all-volunteer docents of Robert Ferguson Observatory look forward to offering the public the opportunity to see familiar objects as never before, and to view objects that were out of reach in the past for visual observers.
Funding for the telescope was raised from individual and corporate donations and grants to the nonprofit, all volunteer VMOA. Total cost has been estimated near $25,000. Viavi Solutions donated the NASA-grade mirror coating.
Viavi reached out to the Project 40 team at VMOA in 2009 after seeing an article in the Press Democrat by reporter Bob Norberg about the new telescope that was still being optically figured in a Santa Rosa garage workshop. Their donation of a highly reflective coating to the mirror, a product that they are world-renowned for delivering, is a significant contribution to what will become a centerpiece of the Robert Ferguson Observatory public astronomy programs.
The new Valley of the Moon Observatory Association Project 40 telescope opened to the public on Feb. 6 at the Robert Ferguson Observatory in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.
Steve Follett, Mark Hillestad, Larry McCune and George Loyer of the Valley of the Moon Observatory Association (VMOA) built the new telescope in their garages, including fabricating a computer-controlled mounting, as well as grinding, polishing and figuring the 40-inch mirror, which was then coated by Viavi Solutions, formerly JDSU, Optical Coating Labs.
Easily the largest telescope in Sonoma County and possibly California dedicated to public access as opposed to teaching or research, the installation marks the completion of a more than 12-year project to bring a more powerful telescope to the community, and make it easier for visitors to enjoy the night sky.
This telescope mirror is nearly twice the diameter of the former 24-inch mirror, which has been serving the public for many years at the observatory. Doubling the diameter of the mirror quadruples the light gathering power for the eye, and combined with the highly reflective coating, brings very faint objects within the grasp of a visual observer. Past visitors to the observatory will remember climbing a ladder to look through an eyepiece on the 24-inch telescope, and a docent constantly adjusting the telescope. The team of telescope makers designed the new instrument to be highly accessible to the public. Instead of climbing a ladder to reach the eyepiece, observers are able to keep their feet firmly planted on the floor. Instead of a docent manually adjusting the telescope from time to time to keep an object in view, the telescope finds and tracks objects using a computer-controlled mount.
On Oct. 20, 2015, the team at Viavi Solutions, led by Charles Kennemore III, Ph.D., Senior Engineer, put a protective aluminum coating on the 40-inch mirror of Project 40. Team members Steve Follett and Mark Hillestad were present during the operation.
Funding for the telescope was raised from individual and corporate donations and grants to the nonprofit, all volunteer VMOA. Total cost has been estimated near $25,000. Viavi Solutions donated the NASA-grade mirror coating.
Viavi reached out to the Project 40 team at VMOA in 2009 after seeing an article in the Press Democrat by reporter Bob Norberg about the new telescope that was still being optically figured in a Santa Rosa garage workshop. Their donation of a highly reflective coating to the mirror, a product that they are world-renowned for delivering, is a significant contribution to what will become a centerpiece of the Robert Ferguson Observatory public astronomy programs.