140312 re: Porter Garden telescope

On 3/13/2014 8:33 AM, Joe D wrote:
Hi All,
FYI I did contact the people making the Porter and every time I spoke with them it got more expensive.  Really expensive.  In the last conversation they wanted around $7000 for part of a focuser.
Eventually I made a maple base, which I do think came out pretty nice and in reasonable harmony with the original art deco bronze.  (FYI we did not have an original base to make a casting from.)  I also had to make a focuser assembly, with 20+ pieces this worked well but did not look art deco.  We had a chance to cake a copy of an original focuser (some other museum or club had an original and allowed us to borrow a mold)  but at that point we had been on the project over 2 years and we all wanted to wrap it up and the person who was going to spearhead the casting part of the project bailed.
FYI we did use it one night, it had a great image (considering that it has a Tim C mirror, there is no surprise here) but was quite awkward to aim and use.  It is way to heavy & bulky to move around often.  Really it was not a great scope under the start but as Indiana Jones would say, "It belongs in a museum!"
The Porter Scope restoration was an interesting project for me but I consider it DONE, especially considering that the museum is no longer displaying it to the public.  Still if anyone wants to pursue this, I will be happy to turn over all my notes.
Cheers,
Joe

On Mar 12, 2014, at 9:19 PM, Tim C wrote:
This is good news. Interesting. I know the cost of the replica Porter Scope was somewhere in the vicinity of 40,000. Joe D contacted these people once( I think it was Joe). He had a difficult time dealing with them to get"part" of the scope redone. It turned out I think to be much more than what was quoted to you for the base part, in fact, I'm sure of it. I hope we can discuss this further , especially with the powers that be. In the meantime Christopher, great work. You are an extremely interesting artist with seemingly a wealth of resources at your disposal. Please thank Nevin for his in depth reply to you. I do believe the Museum may be very interested in this development. In fact, I am CCing Javier R, who I hope you have had the pleasure of meeting already ( I think you have). We'll see how this all shakes out. I am just not sure how much interest this will have at this particular time from the Museum's position. They have a lot of irons in the fire. We may want to let the club officers know through Tom T of this. Again, thank you for this news regarding this wonderful piece in the Museum's possession.
T

On Mar 12, 2014, at 2:00 PM, christopher u wrote:
Hi Guys,
I wrote Nevin Littlehale to inquire about the cost for replacing the bronze base of the Porter Garden Scope. We had spoken about it a while back and I had forgotten to ask earlier. It seems much less expensive a prospect than I had though (approximately $700us see below). It really would be a beautiful addition to the museum.
I'm not sure how and to whom the information could be forwarded.
Best,
C.U.  

From: Christopher U

 Date: Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 12:21 PM
Subject: Garden telescope base restoration estimate?
To: Nevin Littlehale
Hello Nevin,
It's Chris U from painting at SBCC. I was speaking with some people from an astronomy club Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit. They told me that the SBMNH has an incomplete 1920's Porter Garden Telescope. They just need to remake the base which is missing completely. It is a beautiful and important object so...
-They were wondering if possible and approximately how costly it would be to replicate the base. What do you think?
RESPONSE FROM NEVIN:
To make something like that I will have to make a model and then pull a mold off of it then cast it in Bronze. I could also design it in Autodesk inventor and print it then cast it. How soon do they need this? Can I come and look at the original and get some spec's on it? All told it shouldn't be more than $700.00.
http://www.novacon.com.br/odditycameras/portergradene.htm