Steve Kufeld - Ο δημιουργός του Telrad

[astrovox]

Το γνωστό σε όλους μας Telrad (TELescope Reticle Aiming Device) ήταν ο πρώτος αστρονομικός ερευνητής μοναδιαίας μεγέθυνσης με φωτεινούς κύκλους και παραμένει ακόμα και σήμερα ένας εξαιρετικά δημοφιλής ερευνητής. Πώς και πότε όμως εφευρέθηκε αυτό το πολύ χρήσιμο εργαλείο;

 

Πιθανώς να έχετε προσέξει την επιγραφή «Steve Kufeld» που βρίσκεται στο πλάι των Telrad, ή τουλάχιστον βρισκόταν στα παλιότερα μοντέλα. Ο Steve Kufeld είναι, λοιπόν, ο δημιουργός του Telrad. Στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ’70, ο Steve ήταν ένας ενεργός ερασιτέχνης αστρονόμος και μέλος της Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS), του τοπικού συλλόγου αστρονομίας. Τα μέλη του συλλόγου επισκέπτονταν συχνά καταστήματα που εμπορεύονταν παλιό στρατιωτικό υλικό. Σε μια εποχή που η ερασιτεχνική αστρονομία βασιζόταν περισσότερο στις ιδιοκατασκευές και λιγότερο σε έτοιμα προϊόντα του εμπορίου, τα καταστήματα αυτά μπορούσαν να δώσουν μεταχειρισμένο στρατιωτικό μηχανολογικό και οπτικό υλικό που θα μπορούσε να χρησιμοποιηθεί σε κάποια κατασκευή για αστρονομία.

 

Σε μια επίσκεψη σε τέτοιο κατάστημα στην Πασαντίνα, ο Steve βρήκε μια διόπτρα από αντιαεροπορικό όπλο που λειτουργούσε με την ίδια αρχή. Ένα φωτεινό σταυρόνημα προβάλλεται πάνω σε ένα διαφανές παράθυρο και έτσι μοιάζει να υπερτίθεται πάνω στο οπτικό πεδίο της διόπτρας. Ο Steve αμέσως σκέφτηκε ότι κάτι τέτοιο μπορεί να έχει αστρονομική χρήση, αγόρασε τη διόπτρα, την αποσυναρμολόγησε και τη μελέτησε.

 

Μετά από λίγο καιρό έφτιαξε ένα πρωτότυπο μεταλλικό Telrad και, αφού διαπίστωσε μαζί με τους φίλους του στην LAAS πως όντως λειτουργεί, άρχισε την παραγωγή στο γκαράζ του σπιτιού του, ένα τυπικό σενάριο για τις μικρές επιχειρηματικές προσπάθειες της εποχής.

 

Στην αρχή χρησιμοποίησε λαστιχένια καλούπια και πρόχειρες επίπονες τεχνικές αλλά σιγά σιγά το 1982 γύρισε σε πιο επαγγελματική παραγωγή με ειδικά καλούπια έγχυσης και το Telrad παραγόταν ακριβώς όπως το ξέρουμε και σήμερα. Σε σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα το Telrad εξαπλώθηκε σε όλη την Αμερική και έγινε το πιο δημοφιλές σκόπευτρο, έτσι το 1992 ο Steve άφησε την κύρια δουλειά του και αφιερώθηκε ολοκληρωτικά στην παραγωγή των Telrad μέσω της ομώνυμης εταιρείας που ίδρυσε, Telrad Inc, απασχολώντας ταυτόχρονα και προσωπικό για την κατασκευή των Telrad.

 

Δυστυχώς, ο Steve Kufeld πέθανε το 1999 μετά από σύντομη ασθένεια σε ηλικία 57 ετών. Η εταιρεία πουλήθηκε από τον αδερφό του σε ένα ζευγάρι που δούλευαν στην εταιρεία κατασκευάζοντας Telrad. Έτσι, η ιστορία του Telrad συνεχίζεται και σήμερα από τη Νεβάδα όπου οι νέοι ιδιοκτήτες κατασκευάζουν τα Telrad ακριβώς όπως τα έκανε ο Steve εδώ και 30 χρόνια.

 

Στη μνήμη του Steve, τόσο για την προσφορά του στην ερασιτεχνική αστρονομία μέσω της κατασκευής του Telrad όσο και στο σύλλογό του, η LAAS ονόμασε «Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site» το παρατηρητήριο που διατηρεί ο σύλλογος έξω από το Los Angeles.

 

http://www.company7.com/telrad/

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3026880/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/all/vc/1

http://www.laas.org/joomlasite/index.php/facilities/87-steve-kufeld-astronomical-site

 

Το σύγχρονο Telrad

 

Steve Kufeld Astronomical Site

 

O Steve Kufeld

 

Το πρώτο Telrad που κατασκευάστηκε

 

Το πρωτότυπο του Telrad

[Τάσος Βράτολης]

Ωραία η ιστορία του αγαπημένου μας αξεσουάρ-ερευνητή!

 

Δεν το ήξερα ότι δημιουργήθηκε με αυτόν τον τρόπο. Πάντα είχα την εντύπωση πως η ιδέα δανείστηκε από την νόηση των Head Up Displays (HUD) που έχουν τα μαχητικά αεροσκάφη και μέσω των οποίων οι χειριστές τους, "κλειδώνουν" τους στόχους σε αέρα και έδαφος. Γιατί στην ουσία την ίδια αρχή λειτουργίας μοιράζονται, απεικόνιση χωρίς μεγέθυνση απευθείας στον ουρανό.

 

 

 

Είδες τελικά; ΚΑΘΕΤΙ που χρησιμοποιούμε ξεκίνησε σαν μια απλή ιδέα στο μυαλό ενός απλού ανθρώπου.

 

Ευχαριστούμε Ανδρέα για την διαφώτιση.

 

Υ.Γ. Πάντα βέβαια απορούσα γιατί δεν τον φτιάχνουν και πιο κοντό σε μήκος. Να γίνει δηλαδή όπως έκανε ο Γιώργος (PapGeo), με εκείνη την ωραία ιδιοκατασκευή που τον κόντυνε...αυτό το έξτρα μήκος έχει κάποια λειτουργική χρησιμότητα ή είναι απλώς για καλύτερη αισθητική;;

[astrovox]

Τάσο ενδεχομένως το αρχικό Telrad είχε λίγο διαφορετικά ενδότερα και χρησιμοποιούσε μεγαλύτερες μπαταρίες, τύπου D. Όπως διάβασα στο link που έχω βάλει πάνω, ο Steve Kufeld είχε αγοράσει τα επαγγελματικά καλούπια έγχυσης για να το κατασκευάζει για $30.000 τη δεκαετία του '80 από την Κορέα (αντιστοιχούν σε πολλαπλάσια χρήματα σε σημερινές τιμές). Τα καλούπια αυτά είναι ακόμα σε χρήση, προφανώς, και η αλλαγή του μήκους ίσως σημαίνει νέα καλούπια και μεγάλο κόστος. Επιπλέον, είναι πολύ πιθανό οι τωρινοί ιδιοκτήτες να μην έχουν τη διάθεση (ή την ικανότητα) να κάνουν μηχανικές αλλαγές και απλά τρέχουν την παραγωγή όπως την παρέλαβαν.

[Τάσος Βράτολης]

Προσωπικά εγώ προτιμώ τον telrad έτσι όπως είναι, στιβαρός και γερός.

 

Όμως είμαι σίγουρος πως κι άλλοι θα έχουν αναρωτηθεί γιατί δεν φτιάχνεται και μικρότερος, σε μια ακόμη έκδοση ώστε να μπαίνει (όντας και πιο ελαφρύς έτσι) και σε μικρά τηλεσκόπια τύπου Heritage 130mm mini dob και να ταιριάζει και αισθητικά.

 

Φυσικά η εξήγηση που δίνεις με τα καλούπια και το κόστος έχει απολύτως λογική βάση! Σίγουρα αυτή είναι η αιτία.

 

Να πω εδώ πως όσοι δεν τον έχετε κάνει να αναβοσβήνει, με κάτι σαν και αυτό

http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=2199&kw=telrad%20pulser&st=2

 

...ΧΑΝΕΤΕ!! Είναι άκρως βοηθητικό για να κεντράρετε αρχικά, σε ορισμένους πολύ αμυδρούς αστέρες και κατόπιν να αρχίσετε τα αστροάλματα από τον οπτικό ερευνητή! Ορισμένοι αστέρες κρύβονται με τους κόκκινους κύκλους ακόμη και αν τους έχετε στην χαμηλότερη ένταση τους κύκλους. Παράδειγμα οι αστέρες της Κόμης.

 

Ανδρέα είχες και εσύ νομίζω μια πατέντα για να αναβοσβήνει χωρίς την αγορά του παραπάνω kit από την OPT, το οποίο έβαλα εγώ πέρσι την Άνοιξη και παίζει άψογα.

[kookoo_gr]

http://www.stargazing.net/wvas/projects/Pulser/pulser6.htm για όσους πιάνουν τα χέρια τους από ηλεκτρονικά ώστε να αποφύγουν το κόστος των 22 δολαρίων + μεταφορικά. το έφτιαξα στον δικό μου telrad με κόστος γύρω στα 5 ευρώ.

[Bi2L]

Μπράβο Ανδρέα, πολύ ωραία παρουσίαση

Σε ευχαριστούμε, μια ιστορία όπου οι περισσότεροι απο εμάς δεν την γνωρίζαμε.

[astrovox]

Τάσο και Κώστα, ναι το pulsar είτε αγοραστό είτε με ιδιοκατασκευή αξίζει οπωσδήποτε και βοηθά ειδικά εκεί που κυνηγάς μόλις ορατά με το γυμνό μάτι άστρα.

 

Βασίλη, μου αρέσουν αυτές οι ιστορίες από τα παλιά, νομίζω είναι κομμάτι της ιστορίας της ερασιτεχνικής αστρονομίας...

[Τάσος Βράτολης]

Ανδρέα άλλη μια ιστορία στο Astromart, από κάποιον που επισκέφθηκε τον Steve Kufeld σπίτι του, στην Καλιφόρνια, λίγες μόλις ημέρες πριν πεθάνει...

 

Το παραθέτω όπως είναι γιατί ξέρω πως δεν έχετε λογαριασμό όλοι στο Astromart και μπορούν μόνο τα μέλη εκεί να το δουν, κανονικά.

Εγώ όμως θα διαφωνήσω κάθετα με τους ΠΑΝΗΛΙΘΙΟΥΣ και ασύλληπτα φιλοχρήματους ιδιοκτήτες του Astromart, που τα κονομάνε από τις συνεχείς ετήσιες συνδρομές και φωνάζουν με ζήλο "Members ONLY!" για τέτοια άρθρα και αγγελίες γενικά.

Τον κακό σας τον καιρό γιάνκηδες...

 

Ορίστε και μια φωτογραφία του πατέρα του Telrad. Η ιστοριούλα είναι παρακάτω, free για όλους σας...

 

Τα μέλη το διαβάζουν και εδώ

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=892

 

Steve Kufeld

 

On a trip to Southern California in June 1997 to track down some of the influential figures in the history of commercial telescopes, I hoped to find Steve Kufeld, the inventor of the world-famous Telrad telescope sighting device.

I didn’t have a way to contact him, so I decided to visit the address listed for his company in his advertisements. I stopped by a convenience store in Huntington Beach, bought a map of the city and located Betty Drive on it.

I found the house, a nondescript single-story home in a residential neighborhood. There was no sign on the house or door to indicate this was where the Telrad was being made or sold. A young man answered the door. “Are you Steve Kufeld?” I asked him.“No. I think that was the guy who used to own this house,” the man said. “Do you know how I can find him?” I asked. “No. He moved somewhere up north.”

I thanked him and drove up to Scope City in Simi Valley, Calif., for my appointment with the president of Parks Optical Co.

 

Afterward, I was looking in the store and happened to mention to a clerk that I had failed in my attempt to find Steve Kufeld that morning. The clerk said Steve lived north of there, in the mountains near Barstow, and had his phone number.

 

I asked how long it would take to drive there. He said I was crazy if I wanted to drive all the way up there. I had an interview set up at 6 p.m. with a telescope maker near Los Angeles.

 

But I still wanted to interview Kufeld, the inventor of my favorite sighting device. So, I called Steve and ask him if I could drive up. He sounded surprised, but said sure. He gave me directions, and I jumped into my rental car and headed for Barstow.

 

On the drive there, I figured there had to be a gas station somewhere. I hadn’t planned to drive that far and hadn’t gassed up since I wanted to return my rental car to the airport with as little gas in the tank as possible.

 

Chugging uphill on the drive north, my underpowered rental car had trouble accelerating. It was over 100 degrees in the central California mountains. There were no gas stations beyond Magic Mountain to Barstow. I was worried about either my car overheating or running out of gas. Pick your poison.

 

Somehow, running on fumes, my car made it to a gas station. Still, it was another 20 miles up two-lane winding mountain roads to the tiny Pine Mountain Club community. Finally, I found his home. It was June 19, 1997.

 

 

Steve Kufeld greeted me warmly. Inside his house, a neighbor was at a table assembling a batch of the 150 Telrads that Kufeld would produce that a week. She looked up and waved as I walked in.

 

Steve showed me the 2.4-inch Unitron, a 12-inch Meade LX-200 and a 6-inch English refractor he had bought and put an early Roland Christen triplet lens in.

 

Kufeld also showed me one of the first Telrads he had made. Plus, the little handwritten list that he kept to track how many he had sold since 1979. I told him that early Telrad might be a collector’s item. Kufeld got a twinkle in his eye and shook his head.

 

“If you want to collect that one, you can have it,” he said, handing it to me. Then, he told me his story. With the increase in commercial telescopes in the 1970s, there was also a demand for accessories and creative inventors who saw a way to turn their hobby into a lucrative business. In 1978, in Huntington Beach, Steve Kufeld had a better idea for a finderscope. At the time, Kufeld was working in an optical shop in Huntington Beach, doing coatings.

 

He was using an old Edmund Scientific reflex sight he had bought back in the 1950s, which was an old Navy surplus relic, “kind of a big boxy thing.” Kufeld, then an active member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, recalled trying to cut down the big box sight and remodel it so it would fit onto his old blue-and-white Celestron C8.

 

He recalled never being able to see anything with a straight-through finder, everything being upside down and magnified. And if he took off his glasses, he couldn’t find anything in the sky. So, the reflex sight seemed to be the perfect finder for him.

 

One day, a friend of Kufeld’s stopped by and had some casting resin, which he could use to make rubber molds of any shape by fast-casting it.

 

“Well, what could I make?” Kufeld recalled thinking, looking at that “neat resin stuff.”

 

So, thinking back to the reflex sight that projected a bulls-eye onto the sky, Kufeld came up with a sleeker, rounder design and made nine of his first Telrads. Those first Telrads used D-cell batteries and were heavy. He would later convert them over into using two lighter AA batteries.

 

Kufeld put serial numbers on his Telrads and, by July 1979, he had made 39. He would sell these Telrads to local astronomers he would meet through the various astronomy clubs. He recalled that one of his first retail customers was Jim Jacobson of Coulter Optical Co. He painted his early Telrads with a metallic bronze paint, before going to black for all his subsequent ones.

 

Glancing at his old notes, Kufeld at first was only making a Telrad every few days, from July 1979 through March 1982, making them in his rubber molds with resin. He would pour the two-part liquid into a mold, and it would start to jell in about a minute. On those early models, it would take him about three hours to pour the molds, then he would glue everything together.

 

He made his first 220 Telrads that way, but the soft mold would start to deteriorate after about 70 pourings. So, Kufeld gambled in 1984 and decided to invest in a steel injection mold for his fledgling business.

 

“I had to decide whether or not I would sell enough to make it worth $21,000 for a steel mold,” he said. “So, I took the chance. I quit my day job and just gradually, people learned to need it.”

 

For years, Kufeld placed a tiny ad in Sky and Telescope magazine for his Telrad, which featured a cartoon character that he had somebody draw for him. Astronomers discovered the Telrad and started calling him, which surprised him. Over the years, companies like Orion came out with smaller, similar zero-power sighting devices, which Kufeld admitted worried him.

 

But his Telrad—with its bulls-eye rings that worked well with star charts—stayed on top of the market. Over the almost 20 years until June 1997, Kufeld would make over 50,000 Telrads. He noted that a lot were being used by stage lighting operators.

 

“In theater stage shows, when they want to shine the spotlight on the stage and aim it before you turn it on, to get it aimed at the right spot,” he said.

But he admitted that even he did not know what they were all being used for.

 

Another great feature of the Telrad was that it could be simply detached from its base and put on another base on another telescope.

 

“Just an idea that occurred to me,” Kufeld said.

But he said he noticed that a lot of people buy an extra base, “then they’ll come back and buy a Telrad to go with it later.”

 

In June 1996, just the year before, Kufeld moved to his “dream home,” a spacious mountainside home in the tiny Pine Mountain Club community, about 50 miles south of Bakersfield, near Mount Pinos.

 

Kufeld used to drive to from Huntington Beach to nearby Lockwood Valley on weekends, to observe at the Los Angeles Astronomical Society viewing site there at star parties. A thrifty businessman, Kufeld served for many years as treasurer for his L.A. club.

 

“So, I finally realized I didn’t have to keep going back to Huntington Beach,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t have a job there. I could move the job up here.”

 

Kufeld was justifiably proud of his Telrad, telling me that they even had two of them mounted on the 100-inch Mount Wilson reflector. He also talked painfully about one time trying to branch out into making and selling binocular mounts.

 

“It was just so much darn work to make those things,” he said. “They were expensive to make, and people just didn’t want to spend $300 for a stand for their $200 binoculars.”

So, he stayed with the tried-and-true Telrad.

 

When I mentioned that a veteran observer friend of mine told me that Telrads were “ugly as sin, but worked like a charm,” the good-natured Kufeld at first pretended to be hurt.

 

“Ugly? I don’t think they’re ugly,” he said, laughing whole-heartedly.

 

When he redesigned his Telrad, he had a plastic shell made at a Fontana, California molding company. He was putting out about 150 Telrads a week in June 1997, with the help of a neighbor who was assembling the Telrads part time, and estimated he was usually about two weeks behind in filling orders.

 

Kufeld had his dream home and his dream telescopes, a new 12-inch Meade LX-200 and a massive 6-inch brass refractor he bought in London on a trip. On the train, he passed by a shop that was custom-making brass telescopes on order, so he hopped off the train to take a look.

 

Kufeld ordered one, but wasn’t happy with the color correction of the doublet lens. When Roland Christen started advertising his refractor lenses in the early 1980s, Kufeld ordered one and replaced the lens in his brass scope with it.

 

Kufeld also had a vintage 2.4-inch Unitron set up in his living room as a decoration. It was his first boyhood telescope, growing up in Great Bend, Kansas, in 1957, for the memorable Mars opposition that year and it allowed him to see the Martian polar caps. He didn’t remember how he had “scrounged up” the $125 to buy it, but still wished that he would have saved up a little longer and bought a larger Unitron.

 

He said he later did get a 4-inch Unitron with a weight-driven drive. At Riverside, a man had brought it with him, and Kufeld said he coveted that scope.

 

“I gave him my card, if he needed to sell it, I put my card in his telescope box,” Kufeld said. “He called me up. He wrecked his car and needed money real quick. It’s a big scope and good for planets.”

 

He was living his dream and providing a valuable tool to amateur astronomers around the world.

 

“It started out as a hobby, something to make, I’ve always liked to make stuff,” Kufeld said. “There wasn’t much demand for the first four or five years. But they learned to need it.”

 

I asked him his age, and he said 57. Was he planning to retire soon? He said no. I told him that he could probably keep making Telrads forever, with the operation he had set up in his home. “I think so,” he said. “A lot of people call me and need a dozen real quick.” He said he was well-known at star parties as the inventor of the Telrad, and people would offer suggestions for it. “A lot of people want it to be smaller,” he said. “But it is easier to find the light from the back when it is bigger. I tell them wider is better.”

 

Any improvements he planned for his Telrad? No, Kufeld said.

“This one has been working just fine,” he said, with satisfaction.

 

I stayed at Kufeld’s house for a little over an hour. Mindful of my appointment with a telescope maker that evening, I reluctantly had to cut the interview short. I promised to visit again, when I had more time.

 

Less than two weeks later, I was back home in Cleveland when I got a call from the telescope maker I had interviewed that night after I met Kufeld. He told me that he had some bad news, that Steve had just died suddenly. It was June 30, 1997.

 

I was stunned. I looked at that Telrad that Kufeld had given me, and thought about that nice guy living in his mountain community with his dream telescopes and successful home business. It seemed like he had it all, and was happy and content.

 

Steve Kufeld made his mark in the history of commercial telescopes, allowing amateur astronomers everywhere to be able to locate objects in the night sky quickly, easily and conveniently, and without the hassle of spending hours trying to align a finderscope. I am reminded of him every time I turn on my Telrad. I see those three red rings floating in the sky, quickly align them to my scope, and say a silent thank you.

ΠΟΣΑ αλήθεια του χρωστάμε αυτού του ανθρώπου..

[Sailor saturn]

δηλαδή o telrad είναι πιο βοηθητικός από τον ερευνητή που περιλαμβάνεται στα τηλεσκόπια dobson?? Γιατί είναι καλύτερος για dobson???