Can You See Me Now?

Photo: Jeff Miller

Restoration specialist John Augustine cleans rust and debris from one of the telescope lenses — an achromatic doublet lens, to be specific — at Washburn Observatory. Augustine is an antique instrument specialist from Parkman, Ohio, and his work caps a two-decade restoration of the observatory, which was built in the 1880s. This lens assembly weighs about fifty pounds, and there’s no record that it had ever been cleaned before. Washburn is open to the public at least two nights each month.

Published in the Fall 2012 issue