13. Detail of the clock drive housing of the Sagemueller mount.

MORE HISTORY: Physicist Edgar Everhart came to Denver in 1969 and assumed directorship of Chamberlin Observatory. Like Recht, Everhart's interest in astronomy came about by chance. Although he started out as a chemistry major, he "didn't like the smells," and decided, "there had to be something else." He switched to physics, and was awarded his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1948, for research in atomic collisions. After leaving MIT he taught physics for two years at Dartmouth and then accepted a post at the University of Connecticut.

The turning point in Everhart's career came in 1954 when a student came into Everhart's physics lab with a broken telescope. As Everhart was a skilled machinist, he offered to help with repairs. From that moment on, Everhart recalled, he was "hooked." He soon began to grind his own lenses for homemade telescopes, as well as maintain his international reputation for superb instruments for atomic collision experiments.

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Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver.