Backyard Astronomer

Early in the evening, as he steered his home-made telescope methodically across the western sky, Clarence Friend noted a bright streak disrupting the usually placid constellation Corona. Friend knew that he had spotted a comet, one of the mavericks of the solar system. He also knew what to do about it. Quickly figuring the ascension, declination and magnitude of his find, he rushed the news by time-dated telegram to Harvard University Observatory, the astronomic clearing house for the western hemisphere. The observation was promptly confirmed.

Since that evening last November, Friend's comet--of the seventh magnitude, just beyond naked eye visibility--has followed its looping course to perihelion (closest approach to the sun) and is zooming toward the outer reaches of the solar system. This week, as the comet emerges from behind the sun, South African astronomers who are on their toes may get a brief look--probably the last look from the earth.

Amateur's Dream. Shy, grizzled Astronomer Friend has been squinting insatiably at the heavens for some 50 years. He recalls being routed out of bed as a five-year-old for his first look at a comet. At eight he was marking the rise and set of stars and constellations on the beams of his father's barn.

He makes his living as a citrus farmer.

But he has his fun star gazing. Tucked away in the orange groves of Escondido, in southern California, is the private observatory called El Amiga Observatorio. It is an amateur astronomer's dream, built to Friend's specifications by local craftsmen. The 16-in. telescope is one of the largest owned by an individual. During the war, when he had to cultivate, irrigate and prune his 1,265-tree, 14-acre orange grove.almost singlehanded, Friend lost some star-gazing time. He now says sadly that "some faint comets probably got away from me."

"Nobody Knows . . ." The Friend observatory is as practical as any backyard astronomer could wish. The supporting base is a perpendicular concrete column, 16 feet long, anchored in bedrock eight feet below the surface on the highest hill of the orange grove. To this block is bolted the large telescope -- a 16-in. reflector in a 12-ft. galvanized iron tube. On the lower side are ascension and declination meters and counterbalance weights. The observatory is roofless. A square wooden platform provides working space. The lenses were ground in a small Escondido garage-workshop.

Three other comets discovered by Friend, all confirmed by Harvard, were spotted in April 1939, November 1939 and January 1941. The third gave him his biggest thrill. It was a comet 1,500 times larger than the earth, traveling at some 2,000 miles a minute, and had the highest inclination of any comet on record: two degrees short of straight up.

Modest Clarence Friend--a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of London and a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada--does not speculate out loud on the age-old mystery of comets. Says the amateur expert: "Nobody knows where they go or how they are formed."

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