Paul Zurakowski: Celebrating 40 Years Teaching Telescope Making

Robert Schalck

In the hills above Oakland, California, the art of telescope making has been taught for 77 years at the Chabot Telescope Maker's Workshop. The workshop is now located at the Chabot Space and Science Center, new home of the Chabot Observatory.

Frank Wright, designer of the Wright-Schmidt telescope, started the workshop in 1930. It's grown over the years, with prominent leaders in the telescope making field heading the workshop, including Wes Hearther in the 1940s to the 1960s and Dennis Steele in the 1960s.

For the past 38 years, Paul Zurakowski has been the Telescope Maker's Workshop Director. Paul, who built his first telescope when he was 14, joined the workshop in 1968 when his son became interested in building a telescope. Paul thought it would make a great father-son project, for he was returning to an old passion. His son ultimately lost interest, but Paul carried on.

Figure 1. Image of a telescope mirror through a Ronchi grating using Paul Zurakowski's home-built tester. Photograph by Don Saito, 2006.


Under Paul's guidance the workshop grew to over 35 students per class by the mid 1970s. The Friday evening classes were attended by individuals and entire families from across the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1972, the workshop students began showing their telescopes at the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference (RTMC), winning a few awards. By the mid-1970s, they were taking ho me almost half of the awards. The telescopes from the Chabot workshop began to garner keen interest from the RTMC and Amateur Telescope Making (ATM) communities.

Each year since, at least one of the RTMC judges has been a workshop member. Since 1970, Paul has attended 36 of the 39 RTMC events, making him one of the longest-serving judges. His workshop graduates have contributed over a thousand hours of judging at RTMC.

Paul's insightful judging style endeared him to the RTMC community. He would take note of the unusual or innovative details that each telescope builder incorporated, letting each competitor know that their telescope was special to him.

Paul encourages his classes to adopt a creative approach when shopping for ATM materials. On weekends, he often travels with workshop members to Bay Area high-tech scrap metal dealers looking for optics, aircraft or spacecraft parts or unusual materials that could be applied to telescope making. His garage is full of new and interesting finds.

A retired health physicist, Paul's background in science and his experience teaching chemistry, physics and math have given him a solid foundation for teaching telescope making. With theoretical aspects well in hand, Paul has a fondness for the technical aspects of telescope making, from grinding and polishing the mirrors to designing and building the mountings. He learned optical testing using the knife-edge tester and still uses one he built for the workshop to measure his students mirrors.

Paul designed and built a grinding and polishing machine that was featured in Sky and Telescope Magazine (Dec 1970, page 382). His largest polishing machine can handle a 24-inch mirror. His recent efforts include a diamond generator for cutting curves into glass for mirrors or lenses.

In 2000, Paul was instrumental in moving the Telescope Makers Workshop to its new site at the Chabot Space & Science Center, just a few miles from the historic Chabot Observatory. Working alongside the architect, he designed the work areas and testing room, which accommodates 40 students. Plans call for further expansion of the workshop facilities to include a machine shop to allow students to complete their telescope from mirror to mounting.

The workshop hallways are lined with photos of students and their telescopes dating back more than 35 years. When past members stop by, they may see a photograph that includes them back when they attended the workshop.

Sometimes members who had to stop working on their mirrors years ago because of college or raising a family return with their sons, daughters, wives, nieces, nephews and even grand kids, to resume where they left off and complete their telescopes.

Paul has good reason to be proud of his 2,000 students. More than 100 have gone into a technical field related to science. Some became opticians, using their experience at the workshop to advance their careers. Others work on optics for industry, the military and aerospace programs. Several completed their degrees in astronomy, physics, engineering or optical design and now work at major observatories, including Kitt Peak, the University of California and the University of Colorado. Many who became engineers and designers are working at companies or government agencies, including Hewlett-Packard, Ball Aerospace, Optical Coating Laboratories, Agilent, Tinsley, NASA and the US Air Force and Navy.

Workshop members also maintain the beautiful old refractors at Chabot Observatory. The group donated over 4,000 man-hours to renovate and repair the 20-inch Brashear and 8-inch Clark refractors, and the 4“ Fauth Meridian Transit Telescope before their move to the new Science Center site. In consideration of their contributions, the group is allotted time on the instruments for astronomical projects and photography.

Figure 2. Don Saito and Paul Zurakowski inspect an old pair of binoculars. Photograph by Don Saito, 2006.

Paul has received many accolades for his contributions to the art of telescope making. He was the first person to receive the RTMC's Clifford Holmes Award for his many years of service to the workshop, and the Western Amateur Astronomers gave him the Bruce Blair award. At the 2003 RTMC, he was given perhaps his best award when minor planet 12321 Zurakowski was named after him.

When Chabot Observatory was looking for a new director. Dr. Mike D. Reynolds, now Executive Director Emeritus for Chabot Space & Science Center, came by to see the workshop and said this about the workshop and Paul:

“One of the things that convinced me to accept the Chabot Executive Director's position in 1991 was the Telescope Maker's Workshop. I ventured over there on a Friday night and was amazed at the energy and excitement in the room. But I soon found out why this was so: a quite capable man by the name of Paul Zurakowski.

"Paul's talents extended beyond TMW cheerleader. He has a 'sixth sense' when it comes to optics; you might have met someone like this and know what I mean. His ability to teach and encourage is probably the number one reason the TMW has met with such success. And, even in the day of museums and science centers eliminating TMW's, I wanted this to be a part of the new Chabot.

"I was amazed at the increase in participants at the new Science Center location. It isn't as 'homey' as the old TMW, yet people of all ages and types continue to be a part of this seemingly-dying art. And I believe it is due to the talent and skills of Paul.”

Figure 3. Paul Zurakowski looks through a Ronchi grating while testing the spherical surface of a telescope mirror. Photograph by Don Saito, 2006.

Paul looks forward to the new workshop's completion and having the chance to teach many more people the art of telescope making. Paul said “ I enjoy the opportunity to teach kids and encourage their use of creativity in building a telescope. I look for the interest and offer all I can to help them be successful. The possibility exists that a new student will become the next astronomer, optician, or astronaut.”

When this happens, the former student can look back to the time and place where their career began and remember when a man at an observatory high on the hills overlooking Oakland taught them how to build their first telescope.

If you have a chance, check out the RTMC web site's archive section http://www.rtmcastronomyexpo.org/archivesp.html and stroll through some of the pictures showing many of the telescopes and members of the Telescope Makers Workshop.

Perhaps you would like to visit the workshop. It is open Friday nights 7-10 PM. Check the Chabot web site for directions .

About the Author

Robert Schalck is an Optical Development Engineer at Hardin Optical and was co-director of the Chabot Telescope Makers Workshop for 32 years, and he has judged telescopes at RTMC for 31 years alongside Paul. He started telescope making in1966 at Hayden Planetarium in New York City. His current project is consulting on the optics for Chabot's 0.5 meter solar telescope. He would like to thank the workshop members for their input. He can be reached at starfive100@yahoo.com