The facility succumbed to the flames almost 60 years after its dedication. | By Tim Lyster
The website of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) captures the trauma and tragedy of 6,604 active wildfires in blunt statistical terms: 460,000 emergency responses, a million acres burned, and 1,433 structures destroyed. This litany of destruction is topped by the Bridge Fire, stretching across 55,000 acres, which claimed a noteworthy victim on September 10 when the Clinton B. Ford Observatory succumbed to its flames.
The Ford Observatory’s story begins in 1964, when Claude B. Carpenter was looking to relocate his 18-inch, f/7 Newtonian reflector from his site in Menifee Valley to an area with better viewing conditions. Carpenter, Clint Ford, and Larry C. Bornhurst—all AAVSO members—formed the Mount Peltier Association, to build an observatory on National Forest land, with Ford financing the project. Other individuals subsequently joined the group, many with strong ties to the AAVSO.
The two-story building was dedicated on August 23, 1965. It featured a 21.5-foot, 3.4-ton dome with twin 3-foot-wide shutters, and sat atop Mount Peltier, at the eastern end of Table Mountain, near the border of the Angeles National Forest and the San Bernardino National Forest.
According to an earlier AAVSO article based on the notes of Msgr. Ronald Royer and the AAVSO’s archives, “Ford envisioned an active co-operation between the Ford Observatory and the AAVSO,” and was intended for “serious amateurs mainly to do photoelectric work on variable stars and to have an observatory close by the Los Angeles area.”
Bill Goff, a former treasurer of the AAVSO, writes that he learned of the observatory’s existence after he saw a story about it in Sky & Telescope. When Goff moved to Wrightwood in the 80s, he started to drive up during New Moon to see if anyone was there, and ended up meeting Ford.
Goff continues, “Clint flew to California twice a year to visually observe Miras at minimum. He and I observed together most every night during his trips. He also brought new preliminary charts, all hand drawn. We visually checked these charts at the telescope to decide if the comp magnitudes were correct!”
“Because of Clint's long term interest in variables and decades as the AAVSO secretary, many [people associated with] the AAVSO visited Ford Observatory. Tom Cave, Tommy Cragg, Janet and Mike Mattei all visited. Ron Royer was a principal user as well.”
A vital member of the preliminary charts team was Charles E. Scovil, who frequently visited there when Clint Ford did, did a lot of the measuring of the proposed comp stars, and did much of the work of translating the photographs into the charts.
The observatory logbooks are worth browsing for anyone interested in the minutia of astronomical history. Nestled between observing reports and instrument updates are accounts from visitors that describe the challenges of operating in such an isolated location—and even getting to the observatory!
On January 20-21, 1990, Jack and Maren Child wrote:
“Well here we are! Arrived by skis at 5 p.m. Beautiful day, good snow. Found quite a puddle, half-frozen, and some snow upstairs. Used towels to clean it up. Do we have a mop? Desks and telescope appear dry."
The AAVSO subsequently donated the facility to the Los Angeles Astronomical Society in 2012, where it remained in use for club members until its untimely destruction last month. Wildfires are a fact of life in that part of the U.S., and many times it is providence on whether a particular structure survives. A JPL facility on Table Mountain (TMF) barely escaped the fire’s path. Senior Research Scientist Stan Sander writes that “the fire burned right to the fence line at TMF—we lucked out again.” Unfortunately, the Ford Observatory’s luck had run out. 