THE PROBLEM

Back in 1974 Charles E. Scovil had a problem.  Stamford Observatory, directed by Mr. Scovil, had a dome that could not be made to work despite all attempts to make it work over a long period of time.  You can read about all the troubles with it below.  After replacing the original dome on the observatory with a new Ash dome the original dome sat on the observatory grounds in full public view like a big ugly white elephant.  Now another problem..  How does one get rid of a two ton worthless dome that is spoiling the looks of your observatory?  Certainly Mr. Scovil would not resort to anything devious or unethical, would he?  Read on..  You be the judge.

Updated:

The following section is a screen print is from www.stamford-observatory.com/dome.html  The website has since been taken down, but this screeen print preserves the contents of this page.

THE SOLUTION

So.. What did Charles Scovil decide to do with the old defective dome?  The solution was apparently to "donate" the old, useless dome to some students building an observatory for their high school!  The photo below shows Charles E. Scovil supervising the donation of the dome to the high school kids.  After moving the dome to New York however the students quickly found (as Charles Scovil knew, based on the web page shown above) that the dome was defective and completely useless for an observatory.  Nevertheless, Charles Scovil was relieved of the old dome (for free) and the Stamford observatory property looked beautiful again.  The "problem" of how to dispose of a defective, useless dome was now successfully transferred to the high school kids!  They now had to figure out a way to get rid of it.  It also destroyed their dream of building a beautiful domed observatory for their high school.  The following page from the Byram Hills High School astronomy club describes the moving of the Stamford Observatory dome by the high school students.  The page is from the August 1974 astronomy club newsletter.

A private message to Charles E. Scovil : "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the rooftops for all to hear." -  Luke 12:2   (Translation: Karma's a bitch.)