Astro-Gators Reminiscences & Updates

Ode to an Astronomy Club

Bill Riebsame (now Bill Travis)

I was a member of the Astro-Gators from sometime in 1964 or early 65 (when I was 12) until I left for FSU in 1971. The club met every two weeks, at the original museum on Riverside Ave. when I first joined, then moved to the current location at Dallas Thomas Park. Another member, Charles McCool, and I worked that summer to take apart exhibits and ship them to the new building. What with meteor watches, trips to the Cape, occultations, crazy drives for the fun of it to visit planetariums and observatories (e.g., in Bradenton, Atlanta, Baton Rouge), to Key West, and of course many nights at Switzerland, the Astro-Gators and amateur astronomy dominated my life; and my parents were supportive of it all! The club provided many benefits, not the least of which was what I learned from adult directors like Rick Hart, Lawrence Fordham, Richard Sweetsir, and other mentors like Karl Simmons, Milton Hays, John Boze. Fellow club members, too numerous to name (most of my cohort are listed on the 1970 members list on this website), made it all worthwhile.

Some of the highlights I recall:

· 1965: a big year of meteor watches, at Switzerland, Burnett Park, the Dunn Avenue church—IGY meteor forms, calls of “mark,” the smell of mosquito repellent, and strains of WWV.
· Giving public shows in the small planetarium at the old museum, we learned constellation mythology from Rick Hart.
· 1966: the Leonid meteor storm, but it was a school night and cloudy. I saw hundreds thru breaks in the clouds from my backyard.
· 1969: watching Apollo 11 launch, from Titusville with millions of others.
· Observing the stacked CSM/LM and shrouds, glinting in the sun at maybe 8 magnitude, during trans lunar coast.
· Watching Apollo 13 take off from the VIP site thanks to Rick Sweetsir’s pass.
· Catching sight of Explorer One before its orbit decayed.
· The grazing occultation of Mars from Eleuthera in the Bahamas (my site missed the graze).
· The 1970 total solar eclipse, cloudy but we saw the corona thru a temporary thinning from the Waycross site.

I also took part in the Jacksonville Weather Watchers and am forever grateful to George Winterling for sponsoring us—thanks to Jeff Sills and Chuck Wewer for helping to start that club up—it was hatched by Jeff Sills during a lunch conversation in the Lake Shore Junior High cafeteria. Folks like Daryl MCollister, who really energized the JWW, also became active in the Astro-Gators.

I was just disengaging from the Astro-Gators and heading off to college when the “Beachists” came onboard, and folks like Mike Reynolds were wowing us with cooled emulsion astrophotography, and a more technical approach to astronomy than many of us were able to muster.

The AGAC changed my life for the better, helped me thru the dysfunctional Duval County school system of the 1960s, and inspired me. I try to pass along that inspiration, like Richard Sweetsir and others did for me.

I live (and practice amateur astronomy) in Boulder, Colo., and teach at the University of Colorado. I’d love to hear to from other Astro-Gators, and hope you will contribute reminiscences, photos, and other memorabilia to this web site. Send a bio and a photo, and I’ll post them to this site. If you have old documents contact me for a mailing address and I’ll scan them and return them to you.

Bill Travis