13th Dec 2014: - I was finally able to send Guy an email letting him know that around Feb / Mar 2014 Mr Noack had sold the telescope to a farmer who planned to restore the telescope completely.   The next day I was able to email Guy to let him have contact details for the new owner of the telescope, a Mr Hannes van der Merwe.  Guy replied that he would keep me posted on developments.

On 24th March 2014 I received an email from one Guy Ellis in the UK; Guy stated that his Mom was the only daughter of William McLean Johnston who donated the telescope to the school!! He wanted to know whether Mr Noack still had the telescope.

!!!NEWSFLASH - 28 November 2001!!!

I've managed to track down the telescope!!!  It is at the home of Mr. R Noack, an Amateur Astronomer in Blaauwberg.  Mr. Noack apparently has his own private fully-equipped Astronomicval Observatory on his property and by the sounds of it has some very impressive equipment there - his largest telescope is a 21-inch (53,3cm) "reflector".

According to Mr. Noack, when he fetched the telescope to bring it to his home, it was in very bad shape - literally!!  The tube was seriously bent, the "objective" (the front lens) had a chip in it and the eyepieces were in bad shape.  The one item that he did not receive was the actual "equitorial mounting"

The optics have been tested and the tube re-furbished and the telescope is now ready for use.  Mr. Noack has kindly invited me to come and visit his observatory and as soon as I can I will publish some photos of the old telescope at its new home.

SHORT HISTORY OF THE TELESCOPE:

6 November 2001:  The following article on the telescope appeared in the 1960 Yearbook.  The article was also displayed at the 1960 Union Festival Schools' Exhibition at the Parow Civic Centre that same year along with a 41cm x 51cm version of the photo on the previous page:

"The Telescope of J. J. du Preez High School, Parow
In June, 1937, the senior boys of the then Parow District High School installed a telescope on the school grounds.  The telescope was made available by an ardent amateur astronomer, the late Mr. William McLean Johnston, as Astronomy had been introduced into the syllabus in 1936.

The telescope was originally owned and used by the late Mr. William Reid (1861-1928).  Mr. Reid, an Aberdonian by birth, was forced, for the sake of his health, to immigrate to South Afgrica.  At Newlands he set up his private observatory.  At first his observations were of a miscellaneous nature, but soon after the Cape Astronomical Association had been formed, a "Comet Section" was inaugurated, and he was asked to become Director.

Mr. Reid therafter concentrated on comet-hunting, although he still occasionally observed our other neighbours in space.  He discovered six comets, altogether, independently, at his obsrevatory.  In addition he re-discovered d'Arrest's comet after all hope of its rediscovery had been abandoned.

There is also to his credit the independent discovery of a Skjellerup comet which he did not claim but for which he received the O'Donohue Medal.

On June 8th, 1928, a couple of months since having received the Jackson-Guilt medal and a gift from the Royal Astronomical Society for his contributions to Astronomy, he passed away at his home in Rondebosch after a lingering illness bravely borne.

The telescope was sold, taken over by Mr. Johnston, lent to the school and later presented to the school as a gift from Mr. Johnston.

The first home for the telescope, which was built by the senior pupils themselves, consisted of a rondawel made from packing cases.  All the work was done by the pupils.  The only outside help was that required for the making of a large concrete pillar on which the telescope was to be mounted.  The roof consisted of ten hinged flaps.  The house was offically opened in November 1937 by the then-Secretary of Education, Mr. H. Z. van der Merwe.

In 1938 a group of girls from Rustenburg High School had an opportunity of viewing the heavenly bodies through the telescope when they visited the school.  Several groups of boys and girls visited the telescope over the next few years.

In 1940 the telscope was taken to Klawer, near Vanrhynsdorp, where 750 pupils from various Peninsula High Schools observed the total eclipse of the sun.

Six years later, however, the house had to be broken down and the telescope removed to make way for a stone channel to be constructed there.  The telescope was kept in the school until 1948 when it was installed in a more appropriate outbuilding which is its present housing.

The telescope is a 'Cook Refractor' about eleven feet long with a 6-inch objective.  The objective  [i.e. the lens at the front end of the telescope - Butch]  was sent to England in 1955-56 to be repolished and was replaced in 1957.  The roof, which is of sheets of corrugated iron supported on wooden beams, runs on rollers and can be opened fairly easily.  The pillar on which the telescope is mounted is about 6 ft. in height and 15 inches thich.  The telescope is mounted equatorially and has setting circles, which are not mounted however.

Since the revision of the Syllabus in 1957, from which Astronomy was omitted, the telescope has been used informally by a few teachers and pupils.  Article by BJ Cassidy XC"