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Ernie Pfannenschmidt, 1923-2003

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Ernie Pfannenschmidt

An Obituary by Chris Gainor

Ernie Pfannenschmidt, who was known as one of the more outspoken and colourful members of the Victoria Centre, passed away on November 17, 2003, at the age of 80.

The news of Ernie's passing came as a surprise to everyone, as he was a vigorous man in good health, and appeared to be younger than he was. At the time he died, Ernie was scheduled to speak to the December meeting of the Victoria Centre. A few days after his death, a Barlow lens he had recently made was one of the door prizes at the Victoria Centre annual banquet.

Born Ernest Ludwig Pfannenschmidt in Hamburg, Germany on March 7, 1923, he and his family emigrated to New York in 1927. A decade later, they returned to Germany and when war came Ernie was conscripted into the navy, where he served as a radio operator.

While Ernie liked observing all sorts of astronomical objects, he had a special passion for Mars. In 1950, he appeared on the cover of the popular German newsmagazine Der Spiegel looking through a lens as part of a feature on Mars observing. Earlier this year, he addressed the Victoria Centre on his 65 Years of Backyard Mars Observing, and he lived to see the Red Planet's closest passage to Earth in 60,000 years just a few weeks before his passing.

Ernie came to Canada in 1951, and for the first 15 years, he held a variety of jobs first in eastern Canada and then in the Vancouver area. In the 1960s, he found work at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, where he worked on optics for 20 years until his retirement. His optical skills helped enhance the quality of telescopes in various parts of the world, and he did site testing for observatories on Mount Kobau and in Saudi Arabia that unfortunately were never built.

As mentioned, Ernie became a popular speaker on optics and astronomy, and he also wrote for Sky and Telescope, the RASC Journal and other publications. This past spring, he had an article on apodizing filters in the Journal and on a crutch tripod in S & T. In November, S & T published his article about his microflexed Newtonian reflector. Astronomers will consult these articles for many years to come.

Ernie had strong opinions on many subjects and was not afraid to voice them. While he delighted many people with his innovative contributions to every facet of amateur and professional telescope making, he was not a fan of Schmidt-Cassegrain or similar telescopes. His opinions were always delivered in a good-natured manner, and even though I own a Maksutov, I always looked forward to my encounters with Ernie.

As much as he loved the stars, Ernie also loved the sea. He was a nautical engineer who designed ships, and he loved fishing and sailing. He was for many years the greeter at the Victoria Classic Boat Festival.

He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Marlene, two sons, two daughters, several grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

I was a neighbour of Ernie's in Fairfield, and I would often see him as I arranged for his talks to the Victoria Centre or just run into him on the street. My last visit to his home was three weeks before he died, when he gave me the Barlow lens for the banquet door prize. We had a chat about telescopes and his observations of Mars the night before through one of his refractors. A bucket of fish he had just caught stood in the kitchen. Ernie could find the planets and stars in his back yard, and the sea was just a short walk away.

 

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Last updated: December 12, 2013

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