Robert “Bob” Winter
· Pianist and music educator, B. M, Boston University, New England Conservatory of music and professor emeritus, Berklee College of music. Featured pianist for the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1980 under conductors John Williams and Keith Lockhart.
· Extensive experience in clubs, television, radio, and theaters, including performances with Henry Mancini, Teddy Wilson, Buddy DiFranco, Mel Tormé, Luciano Pavarotti, Stan Getz, Cleo Laine/John Dankworth and Airto Moreia.
Charles “Charlie” Tinsley
- Pianist and music educator, Masters degree, New England Conservatory of music.
- Solo pianist for the Boston Pops Orchestra Soloist 1968.
- Fulbright scholar.
- Recording artist for Deutsche Gramophon; the works of Niels Friedrich Hoffman.
Chester Sheldon Cook
Look at the Sky Through a Piece of History
Visit the observatory at the National Air and Space Museum.
Geneviève de Messières
August 2018
Stare at the sun (safely!) or look at Venus through the telescopes outside the National Air and Space Museum. It’s not every day that a telescope gets a birthday cake. But this telescope was special. It had recently traveled 400 miles to start a new life showing visitors the sky above the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and on March 1, 2017, it was turning 50 years old. Half a century ago, its story began with a pianist.
Chester Sheldon Cook earned money for his family in two ways: He gave piano lessons, and he made high-quality optical devices during World War II. A lover of harmony and math, he was naturally drawn to astronomy. So great were his contributions to the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston that his friends memorialized him when he died by purchasing a large telescope and naming it for him. The Cook Memorial Telescope, built by Boller & Chivens, with a 16-inch mirror, was designed for observing planets, stars, and asteroids. The Harvard-Smithsonian Oak Ridge Observatory bought the telescope in 1967 and for decades astronomy students there used it to study the sky.
When Oak Ridge closed in 2005, Cook’s telescope went dark with it. For the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, Smithsonian history of astronomy curator David DeVorkin wanted to put a telescope at the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, where more than eight million annual visitors would have access to it. Harvard agreed to loan the telescope to the Museum, with support from the National Science Foundation.
A truck ride and a crane lift later, the Cook Memorial Telescope is now the centerpiece of the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory. Peering through the observatory’s telescope, Museum visitors can observe the phases of Venus, glimpse the moons of Jupiter, or view a projection of the Sun with a special device—which amateur astronomer Cook likely would have appreciated—made from a flowerpot.
When the Observatory’s staff and volunteers gathered to celebrate the Cook Memorial Telescope’s 50th birthday, we shared stories of its long history and pieces of birthday cake. It’s a history you can share too. Check for observing events and updates at: airandspace.si.edu/observatory or on Twitter @airandspace.
