Sky & Telescope - July 2020 - 84

FOCAL POINT by Paul Signorelli

The author took this shot of Halley's
Comet on January 2, 1986, using hypered
Kodak Tech Pan 2415 ﬁlm - and his
recently recovered Schmidt camera.

Just before Halley's Comet returned in 1986, the author's Schmidt
camera was stolen. How he got it back is quite a story.
IN 1984 I PURCHASED an 8-inch
Celestron Schmidt camera for use with
my C14 scope, which I keep in my
observatory in Colorado. I planned to
use the camera to photograph Halley's
Comet during its 1986 apparition for
the International Halley Watch project.
During testing, I discovered the camera was out of focus, so I had to return it
to the manufacturer for adjustment. The
repair took much longer than I thought
it would, and I began to wonder if I'd
have it back in time for Halley's return.
I phoned the manufacturer to ﬁnd
out its status and learned that they'd
shipped it back weeks before. (Why
they never alerted me, I don't know.) To
avoid porch pirates, they'd sent it to a
consignment agent, but as it turns out,
the agent had moved away. I suspected
that porch pirates had taken the instrument after all, or that the new occupant
of the receiving facility (a residential house) might have signed for the
camera and simply kept it. The manu-

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facturer sent me a copy of the trucking
record indicating that the delivery had
indeed taken place on a certain date.
So I went to the delivery address and
knocked on the door. A man about 30
years old answered. When I asked him
about the instrument, he said he didn't
know anything about it. But his body
language and shifty eyes told a different
story. I knew he was lying.
I left and drove about a block away,
parked, and watched his house. About
15 minutes later the man came out, got
into his car, and headed into downtown
Colorado Springs. I followed him at a
distance, but somehow he "made" me.
Perhaps he recognized my old red-andwhite Volkswagen van from when I'd
initially parked outside his house. In
any case, he sped away.
Then I noticed I was right in front
of a pawn shop, so I pulled over and
went inside. There it was, my Schmidt
camera, in a glass display case right on
the counter!

¢ PAUL SIGNORELLI is a retired electronics engineer who worked on space
programs. Since 1984 he has operated
Las Brisas Observatory (https://is.gd/
LasBrisas). He also runs amateur radio
station W0RW from his observatory.

PAUL SIGNORELLI

An Inconvenient Theft

I immediately called the police.
When they arrived at the shop, I showed
them the purchase and repair records
as my proof of ownership. They told
me they had to take the camera in as
evidence. I said I needed it as soon as
possible because time was running out
- the comet was coming. They shrugged
and said if all checked out I could have
it in about a week.
Fortunately, I got it back in time to
set it up in my observatory and fully test
it. In the end, I was able to capture the
photo seen above using the camera. The
image later appeared in Looking Back:
Amateur Adventures with Halley's Comet
1985-1986, a book by David Deskins.
As is recorded in the Ofﬁce of the
District Attorney for El Paso County,
Colorado, the police charged the suspect
with fraud, and he was ﬁned.
Even after all these years, I still use
the camera. It remains vulnerable to
theft, but appropriate security measures
are in place.
https://www.is.gd/LasBrisas https://www.is.gd/LasBrisas
Sky & Telescope - July 2020

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