R A Marriott

David Sinden

From R.A. Marriott

It is with great sadness that I convey the news that David Sinden died on Monday, 29

August. David was Chief Optician at Grubb Parsons for many years, and was responsible

for some of the world's largest optics, including the 4.2-metre (165-inch) mirror for the

William Herschel Telescope, the 3.9-metre (153-inch) mirror for the Anglo-Australian

Telescope, and the new corrector plate for the 48-inch Oschin Schmidt at Mount

Palomar.

Although embittered by the dismantling of Grubb Parsons in 1983 – a company to which

he had devoted so much of his life - it did not deter him. He immediately set up his own

company, Sinden Optics, and continued to produce high-quality optics ranging from

standard-aperture mirrors for amateurs to a 40-inch mirror for a Japanese observatory,

besides more specialist items such as a 16-inch Schmidt corrector plate and batches of 2-

inch mirrors for industrial use. He also accepted commissions for a camera obscura for a

Spanish institution and another for the Cuban government in Havana.

David always emphasised that his work was not a particularly exotic occupation, and

delighted in such words as 'dirty', 'grubby', 'grimy', 'filthy' and 'gritty'; and yet the results

were superlative. He was self-demeaning in his acknowledgement of others, and often

referred to

the old hands who originally taught him, some of whom had learned their craft from

others who had been taught by Howard Grubb - the Geordies whom he said knew far

more about optics than he would ever know.

Although optics was David's profession, he was an amateur astronomer (he joined the

Association in 1949), and would take advantage of any opportunity to talk about

telescopes and to help those who consulted him. His favourite telescope was his 6-inch

Calver reflector on an altazimuth mount, and at times he took the opportunity to pursue

other lines of research, such as his experiments in meteor spectroscopy in the 1950s and

1960s.

David could talk for England. Telephone conversations averaged about an hour, and his

lecture presented in Northampton in September 1999 lasted almost three hours, while his

e-mails rarely contained less than a thousand words. But every word he uttered and wrote

was worthy of attention. He was passionate about not only modem optics but also the

work of his predecessors - particularly Calver and Cooke - and was master of his art.

R.A. Marriott

Curator of Instruments

Director, Instruments and Imaging Section

British Astronomical Association

Transit, Cleveland and Darlington Astronomical Society.14th October, 2005.

http://www.cadas-astro.org.uk/transitmag/Transit1005.pdf