People Near Here; 202; Dr. Pete Simmons: A Clear View of Eternity/Ed Heath: Man of Stone

The Hubble Space Telescope is called the greatest scientific advancement in the history of astronomy. And Dr. Pete Simmons made it happen. Plus sculptor and Heaths most unusual rock gardens. Next on PEOPLE near here. But you know what. Hello and welcome.

In this edition of people near here the story of two very different people one an artist the other an engineer and scientist but both are men of vision whose achievements know no boundaries because they have let their imaginations run free. Now for Ed Heath his inspiration began with what he found at his feet. And for Dr. Pete Simmons his achievement began with what he saw above his head in the stars. Go for main engine start. We are go for main engine start with. In April of 1990 the science of astronomy takes a bold leap forward with the

launch and insertion into Earth orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope far above the disruptive effects of Earth's atmosphere. The telescope is designed to capture celestial images with unprecedented clarity. It is an advent eagerly awaited by scientists around the globe. But perhaps no one is more pleased about the coming of a brand new age of astronomy than this man. Doctor good morning good to see you. This is where we went to yesterday was it wasn't really when they did that. Pete was a primary member of the original concept development team for an astronomical telescope in Earth's orbit. What has come to be

called the Hubble Space Telescope was Pete's baby. How long have you been coming up here. We bought this place in the summer of 1958 so we've been coming up every summer sounds retired now Pete and his wife Dottie spend much of their summers at their camp in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Paul and I caught up with him there and spent a delightful afternoon listening to just how Pete Simmons managed to turn Congressional rejection for the into a stunning victory. And he's the first to admit he had some help from none other than Superman. Now I was on the eastern shuttle going from New York from Washington to the airport and it was a little kid sitting in the seat next to me was reading a Superman comics and I thought gee you know those are pretty popular. And that's when I got off the airplane already I bought an Action

Comics and find who the publisher was who happened to be an outfit in downtown Manhattan. So the next day I called the publisher up I told them my problem of a large space telescope was not popular nobody was talking about it on the streets Congress wasn't going to fund it. What a great loss that would be and could they help us. Well they sent a crew of people out that very afternoon as a matter of fact and they got pictures of the artist concepts of the large space telescope we got pictures of are just concepts the shuttle has settled not been built yet. And they took these back and they read the whole article about Superman. And it shows Clark Kent on the first story in the first page just shows Clark Kent talking to Lois Lane and he says I'm in orbit with NASA's Ellis t the large space telescope and there are magazines about things of Superman and yellow stevedores

that went down the wash and I help and we gave very member of Congress a copy of this supermassive and comics and I remember asking as many as I could find it would have been you know listen to me and I said if I can get the large space telescope talked about in Superman comics where you think is popular enough to oh yes I'm sure you don't probably you know. And I give them a copy of this issue and a couple months later the funds are restored and we got a large space telescope funded. But once in orbit astronomers were quick to discover that all was not right with the

telescope. Its largest mirror the one designed to see the further south was unable to focus. So in 1993 a rescue mission was sent aloft in an attempt to correct the problem. Pete Simmons was less than pleased. I was P C D who was the most perfectly ground mare ever g in the technology of mankind. I was ground wrong and Perkin Elmer. The people perk and Elmer. I didn't believe the check ins and say use they want to go with this primary no indicator which turned out to have an extra ten thousands of an inch washer in one of its three legs so it was giving bad data a washer washer 10000 and then she often saw the edge of the mirror that is ground to flat so it doesn't collect all the photons and focus them in the secondary mirror and onto the instruments so the people get Jet Propulsion Laboratory

worked out way with contact lenses to refocus a light into the instruments and borrow Space Corporation in Boulder Colorado. Build this packing have reconstituted optics for all of the instruments and they called a costar. Doing that you know it with with suits on in pressurized suits who gloves and managing to accomplish that. They took off the solar rays which were fluttering the solar wind put new solar rings of a stiffer on. That that that five days a spent Norburn doing that is the problem the quotas no question about is infinitely more difficult than landing on the moon and back into anything radical it was a most sophisticated technological achievement that Nasser ever could possibly attempt. And they do. And they deserve credit for that. So

not only Zippo can we collect all the photons that we originally thought we could but we can resolve these folk songs one hundred and fifty times greater resolution and we could have done if the mirror had been perfect in the first. So we're doing things with the Hubble today that were beyond our imagination. Ten years ago to even think about doing what is a picture like that worth isn't worth to be able to hand that to you. This is what I'm talking about. This is the most astonishing astronomical image ever created in the history of mankind. This is the Sea Eagle Nebula was you know had had no spectacular characteristics when we saw part of the Hubble. It was only seven thousand light years away from earth so it's fairly close to Earth. These columns of nebulosity new new dust are being pulled into stars that

are forming appear in the pinnacle of these call. And as these stars get more and more denser of these masses get more and more down and they keep getting more of the stuff pulled up from this column. They then get so compact that the nuclear reaction starts and once a nuclear reaction starts and the star. Now we never could have seen something like this with the Hubble in the heydays of the earth's happiness here we never would have allowed us to see this kind of need. There was a ground based telescope. Fascinating

and fantastic achievement in science and space accomplishments. No the whole team of people made up made it possible. I love the role I played in going back and forth to Washington and keeping it alive when it was dead. And then I think by what it's doing. You know it's working right now as we're talking you know I see the sunshine in my eye the Hubble's up there in the darkness of space and I don't know what is doing right now aboard Everett is a stupendous. Pete Simmons is living proof that whatever you believe in can come true even if it does take a little help from Superman. By the way some of the Hubble Space telescopes more dramatic pictures including even recent discoveries are available for viewing on the Internet. Just ask any search engine to find a Hubble Space Telescope

and you'll find several interesting websites. Now for the casual observer this is just a piece of rock nothing more but to add heat. This is something with potential. You see Ed he loves rocks all kinds of rocks and be it a chunk of rare and expensive the talian marble or run of the mill axle busting farm field boulders. Ed can turn them into one of a kind. Works of art. I'm. Ed Heath is hard at work at his studio in Sutton Quebec just over the Canadian border from Vermont.

Ed six who is at Marble sculptures are eagerly collected by private collectors corporations and museums all over the world. His artistic talents were a gift from birth but they were put on hold for a few years while Ed pursued a career as a sports counsellor for professional baseball. But this transplanted American soon you're in for the exploration of the inner self. So he left the rough and tumble world of sports to chase his lifelong dream of being an artist in Italy and work with the best sculptors he could find and mastered his technique of shaping rough and lifeless stone into supple images and impressions. Always exploring the possibilities of St.. Ed has recently turned to a more challenging form of expression one the ancient Druids would feel right at home with. How do you know. Thanks for having this you know this is the man who works with St.. And I'm standing on what a great old place here with the story here.

This was done in 1868 and it really used to. It's one of the oldest houses around. This one across the street is the oldest house. This is like it was a farm at one time it was a cattle farm and then converted into a sheep. And now we have stones in the fields and you know I saw some stones where you've got to look at that this is absolutely amazing that it's hard to drive by this place and stay on the road. Now this is quite something can you take a break. What I'm looking at right now and then you think about this was it was sort of a surprise just the size of the stone we been trying to do is just do functional work and taking all the stones out of the field so that we can pay the fields without breaking any of the blades and cleaning up the fields. These

two big stones came out of this field. This they came right from here. And this one I didn't think was going to be that big but it turned out to be just about 22 times. So they're actually balanced it looks like you could almost take your hand and rotate it but you know it's so beautiful. The balance how do you do that. We had trouble with this because this was the extent of the. The machine that we use we use a lot and he couldn't really lift it. So what we did was we dug all around and put a ramp to the stone and pulled it up and shifted it into place. Exactly exactly exactly looking up here. I see more stone again but I see something there that doesn't. Isn't stone

mandible. Where did you get that new from that friend of ours who the minister of fisheries and I spoke to 15 16 years ago and I asked him if they had any bones bailable and he put me in contact with the person who was in charge of the last whaling station in Canada and they sent me these bones. They sent them in the mail by train by boat. By truck and on top of this business down here is very stony very kind of a Druid feeling these two big stones here and then the whale bone to me is a sense of transition to another time and what I see there is very oriental looking at it.

We have a nickname for this summer Santa. And it has a feeling it's it's different from the work that I've been doing before because it's incorporating the ball and using it in a manner which I've spent 15 years doing. It would be easy to mistake these monuments which dot the countryside around as the civilizations

and that's just fine with Ed because he says the same purpose to mark the passage of winter and the arrival of spring in the harvest and ultimately to pay homage to greater powers in the universe than ourselves. It's almost eerie walking with his stones. It's like the builders of Stonehenge not only ask how but why. Now this is a piece that you were commissioned to do just a few miles on but I would swear that I'm in England right now at Stonehenge. This is amazing. This is taken on the influence of the sauciest circling in the circle of Stonehenge and it's on the foundation of the original farmhouse It's been old farm out their old farmhouse and the stone is from it's all

from this. This farm here in fact most of these pieces came from in the forest was beautiful. It just has an ancient feeling of having apple trees around in the setting. We needed something that would complement the setting and this certainly feels right. And this is just one of several pieces we have on this property. Yes. There you see the rest of them. Sure. This is another one of those stones where a few thousand years you know people you know they look and say it's a hat. I'm surprised that the wait on that still must be it is it is. Well you know it's gravel. No that's the nature of St. Kitts. You can put a small stone you know for as long as the larger one in fact this large one will probably disintegrate

beautifully balanced. And I'm glad that I'm here with the man that did it because I know the I think that. No no no. It's a wonder St.. I'm being drawn and explicable eat this piece of work here this is really great and tell me about this. This is done on the. In the same vein as the dome and that's the way the doormen over your place is at my place which is the ancient tomb. Right. This is a bar where the situation we didn't have room to put a cave in but you put a small cavity and it's an ancient burial chamber. I'm an ancient burial chamber and most of them you find in again Ireland and some in Britain. And again it looks like it's been here for centuries. That's the

idea. That's the idea. Look how nicely Paul is pulled this just wraps around this you know you built this right into the bill. That was a job well that the idea was to not to take away from the organic part of the trial of the hill Stay right with the Hill form and move the stones and so that the scene has always been uncovered rather than built exactly. So it has the feeling it's always been here. It just does just under something came up and it's just been revealed exactly. Absolutely has that feeling. Let me ask you what what is the what is your personal purpose in all of this. My personal preference is to do what I do know this is hard work it's hard work but it's something

at the beginning it was just to do another form of sculpture because I was carving for a long time and I wanted to do something that was exciting you know and this is one of this form of sculpture and it's to me there's still that mystery about it like how did it happen and how did we how did the Stones get to this particular place and you know where did they come from. And they're still that mystery. Where did these stones come from. They we found them here but did they travel. You know when you take them out of the forest and bring them out and expose them they have a certain majesty to them that says that they've been here for a long period of time so long after the artist is forgotten long after this television program dissolves in the dust and blow

that way the stones will still be here. And who put them here and why they were put here will be lost in the mist of time. In the midst of time somebody will come up with some imaginative idea. And it just continues the story continues. It comes from England to here in the story continues hauling 20 and 30 ton stones around and stacking them on top of each other is no easy feat and it gave us some very interesting home video which shows just exactly how he does it. But we're not going to show it because well part of the power of stones is in the mystery of how we got them to stand

to stand on each other. And that mystery is safe with us. Now before you start stacking and stones on top of one another let me warn you that he makes it look easy. I'm sticking to sand castles. I want to see interesting rock formations all the house or take a peek via the Internet through Pete Simmons telescope or videographer Paul Frederick. Thanks for watching. We'll see you again next time when we introduce you to some more interesting people near here. I am.