324 replies to this topic

[hottr6]

I just posted this over in General Observing and Astronomy.

 

http://www.cloudynig...xico/?p=7359381

[Rusted]

Nothing prepares you for the sheer scale of professional observatories and instruments.

I enjoyed a visit to Herstmonceux Castle Observatory when the Isaac Newton 98" was still there decades ago.

The big refractors were quite unbelievably colossal in stature as they soared into the darkness of the closed domes.

They are often very difficult to capture in a single image. A wide angle lens, to get it all in, merely shrinks it to a toy.

Nor can you [usually] get far enough away, in a dome, to do the instrument true justice.

Imagine the sheer sense of scale as the observer swings the great instrument to point at a nearly invisible spot of light in the night sky.

 

[Klitwo]

Take a tour of the historic Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

 

 

http://daphne.paloma...observatory.htm

 

 

 

Klitwo

[Jeff B1]

23-inch Clarke in Greenville, SC.  Was sister lens of Lowell 24".

 

An images of it: 

http://tse4.mm.bing....48cbo0&pid=15.1

 

And:  http://astroguyz.com...01/DSC_0557.jpg

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Edited by Jeff B1, 13 August 2016 - 10:33 AM.

[DMala]

I am doing my annual visit to my mother who is in a nursing home near Milano, Italy, and I took my son to the Museum of Science and Technology Museum downtown Milano. Note the bilingual info tag.

Remember that not too far away is also a dedicated astronomy museum in the Brera Palace, I posted some pictures last year.

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Edited by DMala, 14 August 2016 - 05:29 PM.

[DMala]

And this one was made in Milano in the early 1900s.

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[Den25]

And this one was made in Milano in the early 1900s.

WoW!  Gorgeous!

[Klitwo]

The next time you're in Denver...be sure and visit the historic....

 

http://www.denverast.../120/index.html

 

 

Klitwo

[Astrojunk]

The Great Melbourne Telescope was incinerated during a firestorm at Mt Stromlo Observatory in 2003. This amazing scope has been locked away from the public for over a decade and has now been removed to be restored and returned to it's original home in the Australian State of Victoria.

 

I was amazingly fortunate to get inside the dome when a local scientist was taking a VIP tour around and let me tag along. Inside was stunning in its devastation. The smells of the fire were still strong and this historic instrument looked beyond repair.

 

To be honest, there was little left of the true original anyway as it had had many re-builds and re-configurations since the 1800's, but the nation still wept when it was lost! In a way, I would have preferred this scope be opened up to the public in its devastated form as a lasing memento of the power of fire and as a memorial to those that lost their lives and homes. I could really feel that power as I stood inside the dome. However, I respect the wishes of the Victorian's to bring their fallen hero home...

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[Klitwo]

The Great Melbourne Telescope was incinerated during a firestorm at Mt Stromlo Observatory in 2003. This amazing scope has been locked away from the public for over a decade and has now been removed to be restored and returned to it's original home in the Australian State of Victoria.

 

I was amazingly fortunate to get inside the dome when a local scientist was taking a VIP tour around and let me tag along. Inside was stunning in its devastation. The smells of the fire were still strong and this historic instrument looked beyond repair.

 

To be honest, there was little left of the true original anyway as it had had many re-builds and re-configurations since the 1800's, but the nation still wept when it was lost! In a way, I would have preferred this scope be opened up to the public in its devastated form as a lasing memento of the power of fire and as a memorial to those that lost their lives and homes. I could really feel that power as I stood inside the dome. However, I respect the wishes of the Victorian's to bring their fallen hero home...

 

A good sand blasting job to get rid of the rust combined with a nice paint job...plus replacing a some of the mechanical and electrical parts...etc.  Install some new mirrors and they'll have it looking good...up and running again in good shape in no time.....all 50 inches of it!

 

P.S. Check out the Wikipedia.org Public Domain photo directly below to see what it originally looked like in 1880....when it had a 48-inch speculum mirror....

 

https://en.wikipedia...ourne_Telescope

 

 

Klitwo

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Edited by Klitwo, 21 August 2016 - 01:01 PM.

[Datapanic]

The Great Melbourne Telescope was incinerated during a firestorm at Mt Stromlo Observatory in 2003. This amazing scope has been locked away from the public for over a decade and has now been removed to be restored and returned to it's original home in the Australian State of Victoria.

 

I was amazingly fortunate to get inside the dome when a local scientist was taking a VIP tour around and let me tag along. Inside was stunning in its devastation. The smells of the fire were still strong and this historic instrument looked beyond repair.

 

To be honest, there was little left of the true original anyway as it had had many re-builds and re-configurations since the 1800's, but the nation still wept when it was lost! In a way, I would have preferred this scope be opened up to the public in its devastated form as a lasing memento of the power of fire and as a memorial to those that lost their lives and homes. I could really feel that power as I stood inside the dome. However, I respect the wishes of the Victorian's to bring their fallen hero home...

 

Sponsor me and Mrs D to come out and help restore it!  Looks like it can be brought back just like new

[Astrojunk]

 

The Great Melbourne Telescope was incinerated during a firestorm at Mt Stromlo Observatory in 2003. This amazing scope has been locked away from the public for over a decade and has now been removed to be restored and returned to it's original home in the Australian State of Victoria.

 

I was amazingly fortunate to get inside the dome when a local scientist was taking a VIP tour around and let me tag along. Inside was stunning in its devastation. The smells of the fire were still strong and this historic instrument looked beyond repair.

 

To be honest, there was little left of the true original anyway as it had had many re-builds and re-configurations since the 1800's, but the nation still wept when it was lost! In a way, I would have preferred this scope be opened up to the public in its devastated form as a lasing memento of the power of fire and as a memorial to those that lost their lives and homes. I could really feel that power as I stood inside the dome. However, I respect the wishes of the Victorian's to bring their fallen hero home...

 

A good sand blasting job to get rid of the rust combined with a nice paint job...plus replacing a few of the mechanical and electrical parts...etc.  Maybe installing some new mirrors too and they'll have it looking and running like new again in no time at all...all 50 inches of it!

 

P.S. Check out the Wikipedia.org Public Domain photo directly below to see what it originally looked like in 1880....when it had a 48-inch speculum mirror....

 

https://en.wikipedia...ourne_Telescope

 

 

Klitwo

 

Looking at that photo, my guess is that the only original part on the burnt out scope was the name!!!!

[JonTeets]

I've been reading some of the threads on Clark refractors around CN.   This lead me to re-read Neil English's chapter on Clark in his book "Classic Telescopes".   Clark was given confidence to pursue his career by the figuring errors he detected in this great scope when he looked through it in 1848, a year after it was installed:

 

"I was far enough advanced in the knowledge of the matter [optics] to perceive and locate the errors of figure in their 15-inch glass at first sight. Yet, these errors were very small, just enough to leave me in full possession of all the hope and courage needed to give me a start, especially when informed that this object glass alone cost $12,000."

 

  (image in the public domain, wikipedia)

 

https://www.cfa.harv.../hco/grref.html

 

In spite of its errors, the scope was used to discover the 8th moon of Saturn, Saturn's crape, and had many firsts in photography.   Pickering used it extensively:  

 

"...during the last 30 years, an average of fifteen thousand photometric settings has been made  annually with the 15-inch equatorial..."  

 

(preface to the Revised Harvard photometry : a catalogue of the positions, photometric magnitudes and spectra of 9110 stars, mainly of the magnitude 6.50, and brighter observed with the 2 and 4 inch meridian photometers

Authors: Pickering, E. C.:  http://adsabs.harvar...AnHar..50....1P ) 

[Jeff B1]

_{BTW, IMHO the 23-inch Clarke in Greenville, SC produced better images that the Lowell 24".  But, the lens was clean.  Maybe the 24" is great now that they finally cleaned it up.}

[Kunama]

 

 

The Great Melbourne Telescope was incinerated during a firestorm at Mt Stromlo Observatory in 2003. This amazing scope has been locked away from the public for over a decade and has now been removed to be restored and returned to it's original home in the Australian State of Victoria.

 

I was amazingly fortunate to get inside the dome when a local scientist was taking a VIP tour around and let me tag along. Inside was stunning in its devastation. The smells of the fire were still strong and this historic instrument looked beyond repair.

 

To be honest, there was little left of the true original anyway as it had had many re-builds and re-configurations since the 1800's, but the nation still wept when it was lost! In a way, I would have preferred this scope be opened up to the public in its devastated form as a lasing memento of the power of fire and as a memorial to those that lost their lives and homes. I could really feel that power as I stood inside the dome. However, I respect the wishes of the Victorian's to bring their fallen hero home...

 

A good sand blasting job to get rid of the rust combined with a nice paint job...plus replacing a few of the mechanical and electrical parts...etc.  Maybe installing some new mirrors too and they'll have it looking and running like new again in no time at all...all 50 inches of it!

 

P.S. Check out the Wikipedia.org Public Domain photo directly below to see what it originally looked like in 1880....when it had a 48-inch speculum mirror....

 

https://en.wikipedia...ourne_Telescope

 

 

Klitwo

 

Looking at that photo, my guess is that the only original part on the burnt out scope was the name!!!!

 

I think there is a mixup in the pics, AstroJunk, that photo of the burnt remains is actually the 74" Reflector at Mt Stromlo, just down from the Great Melbourne Telescope, much less survived of the GMT.

You were lucky indeed to get inside the dome of the 74", great picture.  I have some recent pics from Stromlo. Sent you a PM.

.

Edited by Kunama, 24 August 2016 - 03:06 AM.

[Kunama]

Here is the remains of the Great Melbourne Telescope Dome as it stands today as a memorial to events of the past:

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[Kunama]

These later modifications to the Great Melbourne Telescope are now part of the sculptures on Mt Stromlo as reminders of the ferocity of the firestorm.

The Upper Telescope Assembly with attached truss tubes and the central cage of the modified double truss design.  The molten aluminium and 'heat treated' steel and bronze fittings

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[Astrojunk]

Thanks for the correction Matt, I looked back through my plotos and had been confused by the signage (I must be getting old!)

 

But I have found a photo of part of the Great Melbourne Telescope that burned down - it was dumped to one side and is part of the more recent, and much less beautiful incarnation.

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[Kunama]

Thanks for the correction Matt, I looked back through my plotos and had been confused by the signage (I must be getting old!)

 

But I have found a photo of part of the Great Melbourne Telescope that burned down - it was dumped to one side and is part of the more recent, and much less beautiful incarnation.

No worries,  I have been taking photos there for nearly 40 years unfortunately when we moved to Queensland in 1998, the removalists "lost" several boxes in transit, including about 1000 photos of the Mt Stromlo telescopes. 

[Kunama]

Here is all that remains of the mountings of the 26" Yale-Columbia Refractor...

 

The hole in the lower bracket lined up with the middle of the upper half bearing is as perfect a polar alignment as I have seen.

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[tim53]

My gawd, that's still so sad.

[michael h]

I was in Cincinnati, Ohio  with the better half last week and before leaving town we stopped at the Cincinnati Observatory.  I grew up in southern Ohio in  the  sixties and early seventies, been to Cincinnati countless times, and didn't know that this place existed.  The observatory building dates to 1843.  They have an 1845 Merz and Mahler 11 inch refractor.  We were the only guests there when it opened so we got a private tour of the 1904  16 inch Clark.  It is like looking at a work of art.

 

Mike H

 

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[michael h]

A few more from the Cincinnati Observatory.   A true piece of history.

 

Mike H

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[Vesper818]

Tim Wetherell was comissioned to make a replacement refractor for the one lost in the Stromlo fire.Quite a tribute!

http://www.wetherell...oddie2.html#art

[Den25]

Tim Wetherell was comissioned to make a replacement refractor for the one lost in the Stromlo fire.Quite a tribute!

http://www.wetherell...oddie2.html#art

Wow!  This guy is good!