Robert Edward Cox (1917 – December 16, 1989) was an American optical engineer

Optician

An optician is a person who is trained to fill prescriptions for eye correction in the field of medicine, also known as a dispensing optician or optician, dispensing...

 and a popularizer of amateur telescope making

Amateur telescope making

Amateur telescope making is the activity of building telescopes as a hobby, as opposed to being a paid professional. Amateur telescope makers build their instruments for personal enjoyment of a technical challenge, as a way to obtain an inexpensive or personally customized telescope, or as a...

. He conducted the popular "Gleanings for ATMs" (Amateur Telescope Makers) column in Sky and Telescope magazine for 21 years.

Career

Cox worked briefly at Perkin Elmer in 1939. Shortly thereafter he was inducted into the Army Air Corps

United States Army Air Corps

The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...

 and served for two years in the South Pacific

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

 as a weather specialist. After the war, Cox accepted part-time positions as photographic technician at Harvard Observatory and as staff member at Sky and Telescope. He also became associate editor of Weatherwise

Weatherwise

For the energy services company WeatherWise, see Fixed billWeatherwise is a magazine founded by David M. Ludlum and was published by Heldref Publications but now is published by Taylor & Francis Group...

 magazine.

In 1949, Cox became science curator at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center

Stamford Museum and Nature Center

The Stamford Museum and Nature Center, located in Stamford, Connecticut, is an art, history, nature and agricultural sciences museum. The property covers 118 acres beginning about 1/2 mile north of the Merritt Parkway and was originally a private estate.- Facilities :The museum property was the...

 in Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, operating its Spitz

Armand Spitz

Armand Neustadter Spitz was a planetarium designer.Armand Spitz, the son of Louis Spitz and Rose , was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Cincinnati, without receiving a degree from either...

 planetarium projector and developing science activities for the public. In 1953 he began work at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

's Optical Research Laboratories, making the prototype optics for military aerial cameras designed by James G. Baker. In 1957, Cox returned to making commercial optics at the A. D. Jones Optical Works.

In 1960, Cox joined the McDonnell Aircraft Co.

McDonnell Aircraft

The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 16, 1939 by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom II, and manned spacecraft including the Mercury capsule...

 (now McDonnell-Douglas) in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. His optical shop produced prototypes in connection with flight testing of Voodoo

F-101 Voodoo

The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was a supersonic military jet fighter which served the United States Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force...

 and Phantom fighter planes, as well as for the Mercury

Project Mercury

In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...

 and Gemini

Project Gemini

Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....

 spacecraft. Optics from his shop flew on all American manned space missions up through Gemini 8

Gemini 8

-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.91°* Period: 88.83 min-Objectives:Gemini VIII had two major objectives, of which it achieved one...

. Cox retired from McDonnell-Douglas in 1982 with the rank of senior engineer.

Amateur telescope making

Cox built his first telescope, a 6-inch reflector

Reflecting telescope

A reflecting telescope is an optical telescope which uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from...

, at age 16 and four years later had completed a 10-inch reflector as well. With Lou Lojas, Ed Hanna and Carl Groswendt, he founded the Amateur Telescope Makers of New York which became the Optical Division of the New York Amateur Astronomers Association in 1937. The Optical Division conducted evening telescope making classes in the basement of New York's Hayden Planetarium

Hayden Planetarium

The Hayden Planetarium is a public planetarium, part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, currently directed by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson....

. Cox became a member of the office staff; while there, he started reading proof for planetarium director Clyde Fisher's new astronomy magazine The Sky beginning with its November 1937 issue.

During the solar eclipse

Solar eclipse

As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...

 of April 7, 1940, which was partial in New York City, Cox assisted in the first public use of television to cover an astronomical event.

When Earle Brown stepped down as conductor of Sky and Telescopes "Gleanings for ATMs" column in 1956, Cox took over the department, which he ran until December 1977, for a total of 254 installments. The columns contained practical telescope making ideas, shop techniques, and wisdom drawn from his professional career as an optical engineer. Some of the early columns were later collected into a book, Gleanings Bulletin C.

Through the early Stellafane

Stellafane

Stellafane is the name of the clubhouse built by the Springfield Telescope Makers club of Springfield, Vermont in the early 1920s, and has since come to refer to the club's land and buildings on the summit of Breezy Hill...

 meetings, Cox came to know Russell W. Porter

Russell W. Porter

Russell Williams Porter was an American artist, engineer, amateur astronomer and explorer. He was a pioneer in the field of “cutaway illustration" and is sometimes referred to as the "founder" or one of the "founders" of amateur telescope making."-Biography:Russell W...

 and Albert G. Ingalls. Cox has been described as their "undisputed heir". Like Ingalls, Cox consistently advocated the highest standards for amateur telescope makers. In a 1956 review of the 12th printing of Ingalls' Amateur Telescope Making

Amateur Telescope Making

Amateur Telescope Making is a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls between 1926 and 1953 while he was an associate editor at Scientific American. The books cover various aspects of telescope construction and observational technique, sometimes at quite an advanced level, but always in...

, Cox wrote:

It is generally conceded that anyone who mounts a mirror or lens as a telescope for viewing celestial objects has become a telescope "nut" regardless of how the optics were obtained. There is only one important requirement - that the optics be of first quality, capable of giving satisfactory views of the moon, the sun, double stars, cluster, nebulae, and the planets.

Cox maintained a voluminous correspondence with both amateurs and professionals throughout his life. He was a frequent and sought-after speaker at meetings of amateur astronomers.

Death

Cox died of emphysema

Emphysema

Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...

, contracted apparently from frequent on-the-job exposure to extremely fine glass particles produced by high-speed shaping machines with diamond-impregnated cutting tools.

The 1990 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference

RTMC Astronomy Expo

The RTMC Astronomy Expo is one of the major gatherings of amateur astronomers in the United States.Founded by Clifford W. Holmes and the Riverside Astronomical Society, the RTMC Astronomy Expo began in 1969 as the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference at Riverside City College in Riverside,...

was dedicated to his memory.

External links

• Gleanings for ATMs