2 0 0 9 P a r i s / M
e u d o n
IWCMO Conference
Barry ADCOCK: NINETEENTH CENTURY OBSERVATIONS OF MARS WITH
THE GREAT
Talk at the IWCMO meeting, Paris, 18th September
2009
T |
he
Great Melbourne Telescope was a 48 inch reflecting telescope inst
The
following specifications are of interest.
Diameter
of the primary mirror 48 inches. (1.2 meters)
Focal length 30 6煤 (9.3
meters)
Secondary
amplification approx. 6
Magnification
220x to
1000x
Mass
of moving parts 8.24
tonnes.
Fig.3
Figure
2 shows the telescope being assembled in 1869 and Fig. 3 shows the completed
instrument.
In 1873 J. Turner took
a prime focus photograph of the 9 day old Moon (Fig. 4) and made sever
Fig.5
In
1894 the director of Melbourne Observatory, Robert Ellery made some drawings of
Mars with descriptions (Fig. 6). These
reproductions are poor and we continue to search the archives for the origin
In 1945 the telescope
was relocated at Mt Stromlo Observatory near
Members
of the Astronomical Society of Victoria are now working on restoring the
telescope to its original 1869 appearance.
A feasibility study is now underway to determine the possibility of
mounting the instrument as a working telescope back in
Barry
ADCOCK, Astronomical Society of Victoria,