Rod and the AP175 first light

[Jeff Crilly]

We found the video of the AP175 first light.  

August 14, 2015 at Lick

I put it on YouTube for your enjoyment.  

https://youtu.be/H9RqDnUdJgM

-jeff 

On May 10, 2026, at 10:50 AM, Camerabooks.com Support <sup...@camerabooks.com> wrote:



Hey Mark, thanks for the note. Not very familiar with the family but Kris was in the house until recently moved to a county facility for her care, suffering from Alzheimers. While I directly bought most of the astronomy gear I'm brokering the sale of the Starfire, the 1100GTO mount and the pier with no direct monetary compensation to me, just helping Kris as apparently Kris's financial situation isn't the greatest. 

In the house was a plastic cased Norden bombsight, destined to be sent to Rod's brother back east. 

Tom

On Sun, May 10, 2026 at 6:25 AM Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm also saddened to hear Rod is gone.  He had many of the characteristics of the Baby Face Nelson in Oh Brother Where Art Though (love of guns, near trigger temper, and soft heart).  Condolences to his family and (if they were still together) Kris.

Little known was his grandfather (Carl) developed the Norden Bombsight, used during WWII.

And yes, Jay's recount of his "adventure" with the AP is classic Rod.

Rod was also a regular (from the start) at our early Mount Lassen Star Parties, which lead to SSP and GSSP.

What a fun guy.  Here he is (blurry old 90's photo) I took of him dressed in a wizard costume to run the public program on 30" at Fremont Peak.

Thanks for the fun, Rod.

On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 10:05:11 PM UTC-7 jeffc...@gmail.com wrote:

I’m sad to hear Rod passed. He will be missed at Lick Observatory.

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[Richard Navarrete]

That’s awesome. Four guys to setup one scope. I guess he never used it when he was alone. 😊

Richard

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[Jeff Crilly]

We found the video of the AP175 first light.  

August 14, 2015 at Lick

Actually, we think the first light was sometime in July 2015.   

The video was edited (to rotate it)  in August, hence the August timestamp on the video.

(My email only goes back to 2018 for some reason.. so I would need some other "evidence".)

Here is a photo with metadata date July 25, 2015.   It is a bit grainy.. but the telescope on the AP1200 (center) certainly looks large enough to be an AP175.

(Unfortunately Rod is not in the picture.)

[Jay Freeman]

That does look like a 175 in the still image, but don't be hasty about the identification: several folks brought big Astro-Physics refractors to Lick regularly, up to and including 180s.

-- Jay Reynolds Freeman

---------------------
Jay_Reynol...@mac.com
http://JayReynoldsFreeman.com
(personal web site)

On May 31, 2026, at 11:34 AM, Jeff Crilly <jeffc...@gmail.com> wrote:

We found the video of the AP175 first light.  [...]

[Rajah]

Wow!!! Great moment. I can also see that cameras have come a long way since then

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[Peter Natscher]

Center scope looks like Rich Neuschafer's F/9 180EDT. Rich is seated to the left of Jeff.

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

I thought that was Rich! Hope he's doing well.

[Jeff Crilly]

I also wondered if this was the 180... and unfortunately the picture I have is a bit grainy to tell difinetively.    The labeling on the dewshield of the 180 and the 175 is quite different.  

Usually Rich uses an AP900 at Lick... I think even with 180.   And that night the AP1200 was out.

Also.. the 180 rarely makes it up to Lick.    Mostly Rich was driving a 130 or occasionally a 155.

There's a bit of other evidence in the video to indicate the video and still are from the same night: the position of my cooler on the ground is the same... tho that could be the same spot for multiple nights. 

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