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Author
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Topic: Astronaut autopen and signature guides
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hinkler
Member Posts: 573
From: Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 01-03-2011 02:43 PM
   
The Astronaut Autopen Guide by Simon Vaughan and Roy Gutzke was done in 1989 or thereabouts. The Sanabria Cosmonaut Autographs Guide dates back to 1994.Would updated versions of these valuable reference guides be of interest members? I know Simon Vaughan is an occasional visitor to these forums. I am sure we have the knowledge and expertise among list members to do this. What do you think? |
BMacKinnon
Member Posts: 230
From: Waterford, MI. USA
Registered: Jul 2007
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posted 01-03-2011 04:50 PM
I collect autopens as part of my collection and have several that are not in either guide. I would like to see an updated guide and would be more than willing to send scans of my autopens! (I am still working on my Gemini crews, otherwise I have all Apollo, Skylab and a good chunk of the portrait images.) |
Steve Procter
Member Posts: 1031
From: Leeds, Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Oct 2000
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posted 01-03-2011 05:55 PM
A new cosmonaut autograph guide would be a great idea. More than happy to assist if I can. |
hinkler
Member Posts: 573
From: Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 01-03-2011 06:16 PM
Thank you for your replies gents. I have had a couple of replies off list as well.Certainly seems to be some interest in updating the guides. |
spaced out
Member Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 01-04-2011 03:04 AM
I guess you're talking about the post Apollo-era autopens here?If you think there's any Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronaut autopens missing from my AstroAutopens site I'd be very interested to hear about it. I would be willing to extend my guide to cover Group 8 onwards but it would be a lot of work and I'd need a source of clean autopen pattern examples. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable taking images from someone else's autopen guide. |
SVaughan
Member Posts: 42
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted 01-05-2011 08:52 AM
It's hard to believe that it's been over 20 years since the Astronaut Autopen guide was compiled. In many ways the hobby was simpler then. Although there was the odd secretarial signature floating around, forgeries were largely few and far between and for the most part autopens were the collector's biggest problem. And such was the relatively low-key commecialisation of the hobby at the time that even NASA helped fill in some of the autopen holes for the guide!Then again, there was no internet so locating autopen examples of some astronauts for the guide - especially the deceased and non-flown ones (NASA lock-up autopen matrixes of an astronaut as soon as they pass away) - was extremely difficult as there was no easy way of contacting a wide spectrum of collectors... especially for a High School student on a very limited production budget like mine! Oh to have had collectSPACE back then. Which brings me to the internet... Identifying autopens is as important now as it has ever been and an up-to-date guide is very valuable for all collectors. Chris has done an excellent job with his website and there are a couple of others that also contribute to this field. I think that's probably the best way to continue to expand and share this knowledge as an on-line reference can always be as current as the information allows. Unfortunately, I am no longer in contact with Stephen Datz who I assisted with the Cosmonaut Autograph guide along with a number of other people who post on here. Given that the majority of cosmonaut signatures are indecipherable to most collectors in the west, any guide to their writing would be as valuable today as it was when Stephen produced his guide in 1994. |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 01-05-2011 05:21 PM
Online guides, like the one Chris has produced, are extremely nice to have...since they can remain flexible and are easily updated when new information emerges. (For example, Chris recently identified a new Alan Shepard autopen example that had not been previously documented.) The trouble with online guides, of course, is that they demand constant attention to keep them updated...and at least some investment of time and money by those who maintain the website. Some excellent internet resources have disappeared once their hosts have grown tired of maintaining them. For now, we have Chris's excellent site for the early Astronauts and Craig Stadler's site for the Shuttle era astronauts. Perhaps any new guides that are constructed could find an established website (such as collectSPACE) to host them, helping to ensure some longevity for the finished product. Cosmonaut signatures are an area where many collectors remain ignorant (myself included)...so a guide would be extremely helpful. Ideally, any guide would included a handful of exemplar signatures for each flown Cosmonaut...vetted with the same level of scrutiny applied to the signatures collected for the Armstrong signature study. |
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