This entire endeavor began as a project to appease a nagging wife.
So much for the theory of business development as I taught it at the University of Texas for over 20 years. I have been an avid astronomer since I was in my teens in pre-astronaut times. My first telescope was a no-name 90mm refractor of dubious Japanese origin, the only clue being the non-standard eyepiece sizes. But it was a fairly decent telescope for 1960. It was after the initial shoeshine money was exhausted that I was bitten by the bug to take pictures of the stars. I had heard rumors amid the cornfields of Illinois that astrophotographers used 35mm cameras for pictures. Enterprising as always, I began cleaning bathrooms in the local gas stations on weekends to make a few dollars to invest in a camera. This, it turned out, was another no-name 35mm with a Sears brand name. No option to remove the camera lens, of course, so I manufactured my own t-ring out of a broken filter ring and cast iron pipe. My first projection photograph of Jupiter amazed me! I had actually captured something on 100 asa film. No matter that the image was the size of a pencil head - I had achieved the unachieveable!
Astrophotography continued to loom in the back of my mind for another thirty-five years through three children, marriage, debt consolidation, ten automobiles, and man walking on the Moon. Despite Hubble, the quest to actually take a decent picture on my own became a personal quest. Among the many challenges I ran up against, the most severe was poor eyesight. Time had not been kind to my retinas. Contact lenses improved my night sight considerably, but my photos continued to be on the fuzzy side of Paradise. On I went to magnifiers and clear screens and a plethora of focusing devices that would solve the problem for me. Alas, none of them worked - but fortunately so: this encouraged me to rethink the entire problem of achieving easy and fast focusing while contending with tripping over dogs at my feet in the dark. My wife, a lovely but impatient woman, also kept asking when she would see the product of my investment in all of the astrofocusing gear and cameras I had accumulated over time. It was then that I lied and told her I was developing a focuser of my own and would sell all of the worthless gear and give her the money from the proceeds. This bought me about three months time to try to come up with another excuse.
The present astrofocusing system was born out of the need to find silence again in the dark, as well as to solve my own need to take a clear astro photograph. I am happy to report that I was successful in achieving both; however, I am also unhappy to say that since I have begun to manufacture these for you all, I have not had much time to even set up my telescope except to test these devices. And I don't think I have to tell you where the money goes!
And so, when you attach this focuser to your own telescope, please do not view it as simply another scientific instrument that will solve an imaging problem for you. It contains a lot of personal history, creativity, and a just a hint of scientific magic! - Richard
