Star-Crossed Scope May Be Saved : Museum Wants Antique Instrument, but Professor Must First Solve Benefactor Puzzle

The turn of the century telescope and domed observatory at Santa Ana College was built to view stars and planets up to 3 billion miles away.

But for the past 30 years, the telescope has been rendered useless by a more earthly plague: air conditioning.

Air conditioning and ventilation motors, which share a rooftop with the telescope, send out vibrations that make the telescope inoperative.

“If you’re magnifying something by 150 [times], then you magnify the vibrations by that much,” said professor Stephen Eastmond, director of the college planetarium, “and the planets are jumping around.”

A plan to find a new home for the telescope--and make it available to the public--has been dealt a curious setback.

The telescope was built about 1915 and in the 1930s was donated to the college, formerly Rancho Santiago College, by the Bishop family, according to Eastmond. But no one can recall whether the Bishops requested that the telescope remain at Santa Ana College or within the Rancho Santiago Community College District.

Out of respect for its benefactors, college officials are reluctant to do anything that might contradict a donor’s wishes.

The Discovery Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana, known for its historical exhibits, is hoping its expansion project will feature an observatory--and the telescope. It would be the first public observatory in Orange County, Eastmond said.

But those plans have been temporarily placed on hold while Eastmond plays the role of detective, attempting to track down college administrators, and any documents or individuals that can answer the historical and bureaucratic questions that will help decide the telescope’s fate.

“It would be useful to have it at the history museum,” Eastmond said. “We just want to make sure we go about it legally.”

Diann Marsh, the city’s unofficial historian who has written a book about Santa Ana, did not know who donated the telescope, but said it may have come from the family of Clyde Bishop, a prominent attorney who lived in Santa Ana’s French Park neighborhood and served in the state Legislature in the early 1900s.

*

The telescope, mounted to an 8-foot-high base, sits inside a small, domed building atop Russell Hall. “Bishop Observatory” marks the entrance door.

Eastmond and others say the 10-foot-long scope with an 8-inch lens is worth about $100,000, although it needs refurbishing. Dull gray paint, and plenty of dust, now cover the steel instrument.

Eastmond said the telescope was moved to the Russell Hall rooftop in the late 1960s, but was instantly rendered useless by the nearby motors.

The Orange County Astronomers Club will donate the volunteer labor and about $2,000 to refurbish the scope, said board member Robert Gill. But Gill said his group wants to wait until the scope finds a permanent home before the restoration begins. Gill said his group is not recommending any particular site, but wants to ensure public access to it.

Eastmond said a number of proposals over the years for moving the scope have failed, usually because of a lack of funds. One board of supervisors’ proposal to move the scope to Mile Square Park fell through in the wake of the Orange County bankruptcy.

*

The proposed move to Mile Square Regional Park had also caused some to worry about violating the wishes of the scope’s donor. But Eastmond said moving the telescope to the Discovery Museum is less of a concern because it is felt the museum’s Santa Ana location would be truer to the spirit of the donation.

The Discovery Museum would likely have to pay to move the scope, and possibly build a new observatory.

Robert Escalante, a Discovery Museum board member, said the museum has not set aside any funds for the scope, but was confident the museum could raise the money to move the scope and build an observatory if needed.

Escalante said the college, and the public, would be able to use the scope at the proposed observatory. Best of all, he said, bringing the telescope to the museum would allow a historical item to influence the next generation.

“That one child that looks through the scope,” said Escalante, “may be the next astronomer that takes us further than we’ve ever been.”