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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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