Walter Henry Croasdell - Newspaper Article
Morecambe Visitor, 20 February 1963
Star Gazing.
ASTRONOMY AT BARE (By John Morell)
Sixty years ago, a 12-year old schoolboy, Walter Croasdell, was given a one-inch marine telescope which he used to study stars and planets. Now with a lifetime of astronomy behind him. Mr. Croasdell is the proud owner of an eight-foot long telescope which he keeps in an observatory in the garden of his home at 9 Oak Avenue, Bare. He is believed to be the only astronomer in the area with such a large telescope. When I interviewed him, Mr. Croasdell was getting over a bout of influenza, but with an enthusiasm befitting that 12 year old boy, he said. “I'm looking forward to full recovery because Mars is in opposition to earth at the moment and is in the best viewing position for two years and I would like to study it.” Mr. Croasdell came to Morecambe in 1940 and it was then that he started work on his “giant” telescope and it is still not finished. It is so powerful that it magnifies objects 360 times. He said: “I can plainly see anything as big as the Queen Elizabeth on the moon.”
TOO MUCH CLOUD
But he thinks Morecambe is a poor place for viewing because there is so much cloud. For anyone who thinks that astronomy is an easy hobby, Mr. Croasdell has an answer - I've been up at all times of the night and early morning to study. I should have bought myself a microscope and studied things indoors!” He was formerly a chemist employed at the Lancaster Co-operative Society in Church Street, Lancaster. Mr. Croasdell said: “When I got my first telescope I found that by taking out the middle lens and pulling back the eye-piece I could enlarge the image of the moon and stars about 10 times, and the sky really caught my interest. Everything was then upside down of course, as in all astronomical telescopes, but this does not make any difference as there are no ups or downs in space.” He made several drawings of craters on the moon, some of which were published. By 1922, Mr. Croasdell was absolutely engrossed in his hobby and obtained a six-inch Zeiss object glass which enabled closer study of the sky. Eight years later he moved to Liverpool and suspended his hobby and parted with the Zeiss because he could not see the sky from his home.
RESTARTED
When he came to Bare he started again - by obtaining a five and a quarter inch object glass and beginning to work on his large telescope. The tube was locally made, in three sections, and Mr. Croasdell fitted in the glass and eyepieces himself. The circle was made from strips of brass, and he graduated these, - one in degrees and the other in hours. Mr. Croasdell is a member of the British Astronomical Association and has been since 1922. He said: “Any queries will be answered by the Association and I have had much information from Dr. Stevenson, Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University, not to mention the late Astronomer Royal*. Anyone else interested in stargazing? Mr. Croasdell is prepared to help - even in the building of a telescope. “All they need to do is contact me,” he said.
* This could have been Sir Harold Spencer Jones 1933 – 1955.