ASTRONOMICAL ART
THE HAGGART OBSERVATORY SERVES AND EDUCATES
ASTRONOMY LOVERS W ITHIN THE COMMUNITY
BY TOM BOGGESS
Haggart Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on campus at the
John Inskeep Environmental Learning Center.
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“ He was a very nice man who showed us things
’ about our universe that no one else could”
- Jerry Herrmann
Print FEBRUARY 24,2016 thedadom asprintœ m
The Haggart Observatory dome is a m an
made piece of art. Harold and Darcy Hag
gart built it as part o f their hom e in .Or
egon City on Redland Road. They poured
the concrete for the center support one
b u c k e t a t a tim e , a n d n e v e r le ft th eir
house.
The pole that supported the observatory
was in their living room up through the
floor and the roof. When the support was
finished, the construction of the platform
and dom e was Haggart’s next project.
The round top dom e was hand crafted
by Haggart h im self out o f the fuselage
o f a B-17 Flying Fortress a World War II
long range bomber. He bent, cut, shaped
and crimped all o f the pieces to form the
perfect “Dome Effect.” A narrow section
of the dom e retracts so the telescope can
take perfect aim at its celestial targets.
Jerry Herrmann, founder and director of
the Environmental Learning Center from
1974 to 1994, said, “When I was in the Cub
Scouts as a boy, my troop and I went there
oh a regular basis, as did Boy Scouts and
Girl Scouts, to o ,” he said. “He was a very
nice man who showed us things about our
universe that no one else could.” Haggart
died in 1984 leaving m any sad friends,
said Herrmann.
Herrmann en listed the help o f Coast
Crane Company, w hich volunteered the
use o f one o f their huge cranes to lift the
dom e from Haggart’s house and loaded
it on a flatbed, w hich delivered it to the
CCC cam pus. Haggart’s widow thought
it would be easier to sell the house if the
observatory was removed.
Haggart’s original telescope w as sold
to th e Oregon M useum o f Science and
Industry, and during transit the secondary
len se (mirror) was broken. The reflector
mirror was so sophisticated that no one
was able to duplicate it. The remains of
the telescope are sitting at Fort Hancock,
rusting away because no one, at the time,
w as able to duplicate what Haggart had
hand created. It has sat there for about
25 years.
The n ew structure, w h ich Haggart’s
original dom e sits on today, w as built by
students and comm unity volunteers. The
concrete was poured one bucket load at a
tim e u ntil it w as 45 feet high. Coast Crane
cam e back and hoisted it up onto th e new
p latfo rm w here it rem ain s today.
The new telescope, replacing H aggart’s
o riginal b ro k en telescope, is a 2 4 - inch
N ew tonian Reflector and one of th e larg
est “ light b uckets” th a t Steven Swayze of
P o rtlan d h as ever b u ilt. The huge te le
scope is restin g on a 50 0 -p o u n d tu b e as
sem bly th a t is a D obsonian style m o u n t.
The Teflon “0 ” pads allow th e reflector to
be moved by hand in a 360 degree m otion.
H aggart’s O bservatory is located a t th e
Inskeep E nvironm ental Learning Center.
The open in g of th e telescope coincided
w ith th e p a rtia l solar eclipse on M arch
7,1989. It w as used regularly u n til 1999
w h en it u n d erw en t a m ajo r ren o v atio n
a t th e cost of $160,000, m ade p ossible
by com m unity don atio n s.
Two y e a rs la te r it w as re o p e n e d an d
used regularly by stu d e n ts and th e com
m u n ity o f a stro n o m y lovers. Today th e
telescope is bein g ru n by Rose City A s
tro n o m ers. It is o p en one day a m o n th
for view ing, always close to a new m oon,
if th e w e a th e r allows. •
A stro n o m y te a c h e r Jam es D ickinson
said, “My classes d o n ’t use th e observa
tory because of th e lim itations of capacity
and w e a th e r.”
D ickinson elaborated by saying, “I give
stu d e n ts in fo rm atio n about th e H aggart
O bservatory and encourage th e m to a t
te n d th e Rose C ity A stro n o m e rs’ p u b
lic events. I also give th e m in fo rm atio n
a b o u t o th e r R ose C ity s ta r p a rtie s an d
o th e r o b se rv a to rie s th e y could v is it in
O regon.”
H errm an n said th a t h is organization,
located h ere in C lackam as County, would
like to include th e Oregon City cam pus
in a to u r of O regon City an d o th e r sites
th ro u g h th e E a rth C ru sad ers P rogram .
It w ould also include th e Jo h n In sk eep
E nvironm ental L earning C enter, H aggart
O bservatory and lu n ch in our cafeteria.
Steve W eiler, th e Vice P resident of Ob
se rv in g fo r RCA, said, “ O ur n e x t p u b
lic n ig h t a t H aggart O bservatory w ill be
on Feb. 27 fro m 6 -9 p .m .” For m ore in
fo rm atio n v isit th e RCA’s w ebsite:
w w w .rosecityastronoQM rs.net