Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Cyclops of Palomar

Who was Robert T. Edgar? And What was his connection to Palomar?

Here's a showbill advertising one of his talks that I bought off of eBay a while ago.

It certainly looks as if he made a living touring the country talking about the 200-inch telescope in his "The Cyclops of Palomar" lecture demonstration in the 1940s and 1950s (see the "Conquest of Space" article in the link). You can find another showbill of his where he was appearing "IN PERSON" courtesy of the University of Iowa Libraries' Special Collections Department. Page 2 tells a little bit of his story and offers some glowing reviews of his presentations.

I would certainly love to hear more about Robert T. Edgar, how he got started on this road and what happened to his cool props. Does anyone out there know his story? Page 2 of the showbill linked above says that he "brings first-hand information of the great telescope through the inventions and contributions which his father has made in connection with the mounting of the great instrument." This just adds to the mystery as far as I am concerned.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

By golly, Robert T. Edgar just LOOKS forceful and dynamic! And inspiring!

I too would love to know more about this guy. To say nothing of ever seeing a recording of one of his lectures.

I know the past had a lot of problems, but they sure knew how to make the most out of a science lecture.

Forceful! Dynamic!