I bought Reg's book in the late 70's and made the square box telescope, that Reg showed on his lawn. Bought the mirrors mail order for £49.00 and a half shaft from a scrap yard for a fiver. It is long gone now, but i had more fun with that scope than all my other £500 to £2000 plus scopes I have had since.
"I don't play about making mirrors, it's too difficult" damn right! I'm not surprised to read he was a photographer in the description. (Oh, and he says it halfway through.)
Great bit of nostalgia. We built a small reflector at school around the same time, I worked on the mount, which was a simple GEM design and the open tube. Two of my mates ground the mirror which was silver coated by the Chemistry teacher. The eye pieces and focuser where bought from a now defunct company called Charles Frank who were based in Glasgow (I still have a copy of their book Franks Book of the Telescope) Our metalwork teacher was in charge of the project. Astronomical telescopes were generally very expensive back then and it was not unusual for amateurs who were good with their hands to build their own, improvisation often being the name of the game. I don't recall that BBC programme but was that actor and comedian Roy Hudd at the end?
Good to put a face to the name Reg Spry! A good friend of fellow Selsey resident Patrick Moore, who showed one of Reg's square-tubed telescopes on The Sky at Night in 1987 (it's about on RUclips in a couple of qualities).
The tins in the workshop shelves look like old tobacco tins, Ogden's St Julien or some such. I got a few dozen of them from my grandfather who smoked roll-ups and I still use them for nuts, bolts, screws, washers, etc. (One of the tins is called Roger, you can probably guess why!)
So _that's_ what Irene Thomas looked like. I recognised her voice straight away from her regular appearances on Radio 4 in the olden days, but I'd never seen her on screen before.
Every Reg I have ever met creates magic in a shed! They have also all screwed jam-jar lids to the underside of a shelf for the storage of nuts and bolts in the matching jar. I tried that, but being an armour-maker all the banging eventually vibrates the lids loose and there were screws everywhere!!! But then my name isn’t Reg… so it was NEVER going to work! ⚒️🇬🇧⚒️
I love the shed, but it looks like something the guys from The Last Of The Summer Wine would try to make. Although they would have failed in a messy, slapstick-heavy way. It's a shame people like Reg are from a bygone era.
There's still at least one around, he has his own channel called cheapass astro, he's just built an observatory from an old caravan, it's absolutely brilliant.
❤😊 I was born in 1962 this brought a big smile to my face 😊 inspirational 😊 Reg is a good example I can see reusing things will come into vogue again ❤ love the mechanical moving shed and the telescope made with coffee pot lids I love the idea of doing the same myself so Reg lives on and who knows, maybe we'll see a massive change in our society. we have to as anthropogenic Extinction means if we don't there is no future carrying on burning fossil fuel and consuming huge fossil poisonous chemicals fossil plasic consumption it's killing us and our Earth reg it's cool 😎 #buzzofftoxic 😊
1980: Reg's REVOLVING OBSERVATORY | The 60 70 80 Show | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 0930am 2.6.24 i find all this British glorification of innovation and eccentricity absolutely ghastly... maybe if they learned to shout over folk as opposed to inventing things they wouldn't lose their tenders to French eccentricity and innovation(???)
'Reg Spry had many friends and no enemies. Despite the three tragedies in his life - he was twice happily married but both his wives died, while his only son died of meningitis at the age of thirty nine - he never lost his sense of humor and he was the most amiable of men. He had other accomplishments too. For example, he was a very respectable pianist and, I remember, when I was ill advised enough to challenge him to a game of snooker, he proceeded to make breaks in the twenties and thirties before calmly clearing all the colours. He will be missed by his many friends but he will not be forgotten.' Patrick Moore - Excerpt from his obituary in the British Astronomy association 1990. Reg Spry 1902 to 1990.
1980: Reg's REVOLVING OBSERVATORY | The 60 70 80 Show | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 0946am 2.6.24 reg's footsteps amplified into your home as he excitedly wandered about his optic after discovering ........................................................................................................................ uranus!!
1980: Reg's REVOLVING OBSERVATORY | The 60 70 80 Show | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 0953am 2.6.24 let's hope you guys who enjoy inventing and doing stuff in sheds are rendered housebound... in perpetuity.
I actually built a 6" reflecting telescope from the instructions in his book "Make your Own Telescope" when I was about 14. I still have it. :)
I bought Reg's book in the late 70's and made the square box telescope, that Reg showed on his lawn. Bought the mirrors mail order for £49.00 and a half shaft from a scrap yard for a fiver. It is long gone now, but i had more fun with that scope than all my other £500 to £2000 plus scopes I have had since.
What an inventive and enthusiastic man Reg is, a classic British eccentric!
I love his passion. Passion in anything is always attractive. He reminds me a little of Ronnie Barker in Open All Hours.
"But this isn't just an ordinary revolving shed..."
I didn't think revolving sheds were ever ordinary. :-) 0:23
"I don't play about making mirrors, it's too difficult" damn right! I'm not surprised to read he was a photographer in the description. (Oh, and he says it halfway through.)
The sort of eccentric boffin that saved our bacon in the war. Jimmy Martin of Martin Baker also was such a man.
Wonderful man. Love this video.
Great bit of nostalgia. We built a small reflector at school around the same time, I worked on the mount, which was a simple GEM design and the open tube. Two of my mates ground the mirror which was silver coated by the Chemistry teacher. The eye pieces and focuser where bought from a now defunct company called Charles Frank who were based in Glasgow (I still have a copy of their book Franks Book of the Telescope) Our metalwork teacher was in charge of the project. Astronomical telescopes were generally very expensive back then and it was not unusual for amateurs who were good with their hands to build their own, improvisation often being the name of the game. I don't recall that BBC programme but was that actor and comedian Roy Hudd at the end?
Good to put a face to the name Reg Spry! A good friend of fellow Selsey resident Patrick Moore, who showed one of Reg's square-tubed telescopes on The Sky at Night in 1987 (it's about on RUclips in a couple of qualities).
The tins in the workshop shelves look like old tobacco tins, Ogden's St Julien or some such. I got a few dozen of them from my grandfather who smoked roll-ups and I still use them for nuts, bolts, screws, washers, etc. (One of the tins is called Roger, you can probably guess why!)
So _that's_ what Irene Thomas looked like. I recognised her voice straight away from her regular appearances on Radio 4 in the olden days, but I'd never seen her on screen before.
This beyond fascinating.
Lovely Cordless drill at 3min 54sec.
The OG cordless drill!
Every Reg I have ever met creates magic in a shed!
They have also all screwed jam-jar lids to the underside of a shelf for the storage of nuts and bolts in the matching jar.
I tried that, but being an armour-maker all the banging eventually vibrates the lids loose and there were screws everywhere!!!
But then my name isn’t Reg… so it was NEVER going to work!
⚒️🇬🇧⚒️
I misread the title as "Reg's Revolting Observatory" at first 🤣
WOW A Rotating shed
Reg, the first sighting of the UK's Doc Brown. The video title says "1962" yet Reg himself says "I retired in 1971". 🤔
And then, in the fine print, it says this programme first aired on Sunday, 1 June, 1980.
Well, it is called the "60 70 80 Show".
😅
@@jasonayres One should always read the fine print! (well spotted!)
Well spotted!
I love the shed, but it looks like something the guys from The Last Of The Summer Wine would try to make. Although they would have failed in a messy, slapstick-heavy way. It's a shame people like Reg are from a bygone era.
😊 Reg is a good example I can see reusing things will come into vogue again ❤
There's still at least one around, he has his own channel called cheapass astro, he's just built an observatory from an old caravan, it's absolutely brilliant.
❤😊 I was born in 1962 this brought a big smile to my face 😊 inspirational 😊 Reg is a good example I can see reusing things will come into vogue again ❤ love the mechanical moving shed and the telescope made with coffee pot lids I love the idea of doing the same myself so Reg lives on and who knows, maybe we'll see a massive change in our society. we have to as anthropogenic Extinction means if we don't there is no future carrying on burning fossil fuel and consuming huge fossil poisonous chemicals fossil plasic consumption it's killing us and our Earth reg it's cool 😎 #buzzofftoxic 😊
1980: Reg's REVOLVING OBSERVATORY | The 60 70 80 Show | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 0930am 2.6.24 i find all this British glorification of innovation and eccentricity absolutely ghastly... maybe if they learned to shout over folk as opposed to inventing things they wouldn't lose their tenders to French eccentricity and innovation(???)
Reg would be amazed today that you can run your entire backyard astronomy setup sitting inside at a laptop
I reckon Reg built his shed from his Fence and balcony. (first shot)
'Reg Spry had many friends and no enemies. Despite the three tragedies in his life - he was twice happily married but both his wives died, while his only son died of meningitis at the age of thirty nine - he never lost his sense of humor and he was the most amiable of men. He had other accomplishments too. For example, he was a very respectable pianist and, I remember, when I was ill advised enough to challenge him to a game of snooker, he proceeded to make breaks in the twenties and thirties before calmly clearing all the colours. He will be missed by his many friends but he will not be forgotten.' Patrick Moore - Excerpt from his obituary in the British Astronomy association 1990. Reg Spry 1902 to 1990.
A shame reg isn't around to see where astrophotography is today.
Or Copernicus, or Galileo...
i hope he was a granddad, because he would be an excellent granddad 😁
I wonder what he would have thought of the images that the James Webb telescope has been sending us.
1980: Reg's REVOLVING OBSERVATORY | The 60 70 80 Show | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 0946am 2.6.24 reg's footsteps amplified into your home as he excitedly wandered about his optic after discovering ........................................................................................................................ uranus!!
I have forgotten the name of the presenter at the end!
Roy Hudd - he & Irene Thomas presented this programme togeter for several years.
@@robinvanags912 Thank you on behalf of Mr Fonda, who appears to have forgotten his manners. Honda, I should say.
Only boys could make this then, eh old man? ;)
Girls would get distracted by the mirror 😜
Girls do radio astronomy.
When the bbc was normal well at least on the surface.
Normal? The 60's ,70,s and 80's were when the pedo's were really raping and abusing kids, people were ashamed and told it was their own fault.
The good old days when "Men" did things in sheds unlike todays "men" who build crack dens.😜
And having bonfires in an old oil drum and drinking Special Brew .
Well my crack den revolves, so there
1980: Reg's REVOLVING OBSERVATORY | The 60 70 80 Show | Retro Tech | BBC Archive 0953am 2.6.24 let's hope you guys who enjoy inventing and doing stuff in sheds are rendered housebound... in perpetuity.