Stereo photographs of telescopes & observatories, by Peter Abrahams. Scanned Holmes cards, parallel format viewing. These images may be reproduced for non commercial use, providing credit is given to the photographer. ========================== Brashear mount. 127kb: Equatorial mount by the John A. Brashear Co., Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, circa 1900. Used with a four inch refractor for amateur use. This mechanism is aligned with one axis pointing at Polaris. Rotation of one of the control knobs then allows the telescope to track an object as the night progresses. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/brshrmnt.jpg Clark 23. 117kb: Roper Mountain Observatory, Columbia, South Carolina. 23 inch telescope made by Alvan Clark & Sons, 1882. Mount by J.W. Fecker. This telescope was used for many decades for research at Princeton University, and is now at an educational facility, used for amateur observations. In photo, telescope is pointing at Jupiter. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/clark23.jpg Clark 23 clock drive. 121kb: Drive mechanism for 23 inch Clark telescope at Roper. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/clrk23ck.jpg Clark Equatorial Mount. 116kb: Equatorial mount for the six inch Alvan Clark & Sons telescope built for the College of the Pacific, a Methodist institution in California. The telescope was installed in 1884, and was used by astronomers including Heber Curtis and Robert Aitken. The mount is of a very different design than other Clark mounts, and is missing the hour angle setting circle. Furthermore, the telescope is missing the objective lens; and the college is missing the telescope, recently sold to a private collection. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/clrkeqmt.jpg Clark Micrometer. 102kb: Filar micrometer of the six inch Alvan Clark & Sons telescope built for the College of the Pacific, a Methodist institution in California. The telescope was installed in 1884, and was used by astronomers including Heber Curtis and Robert Aitken. Filar micrometers are used at the eyepiece to precisely measure the dimensions of objects such as double stars. The observer views a pair of parallel lines made of spider's web that lay in the eyepiece, and are superimposed on the image of the stars. The distance between the lines can be changed with one knob and the angle they point can be changed with another knob. The distance between the stars is measured as angular separation in fractions of a degree, and the position angle of the two stars is measured in degrees from North. Repeated measurements over time allow the deduction of the orbit of the stars, from which the mass of the stars can be determined. These exercises, with this equipment, are not part of modern professional astronomy, and this telescope is now in a private collection. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/clrkmicr.jpg DAO model: Model of the 72 inch Brashear / Warner & Swasey telescope at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C. Built circa 1917, before construction of the actual telescope. Now kept in the observatory building in an historical exhibit. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/daomodel.jpg 137kb http://home.europa.com/~telscope/DAOmodel-72inBrashear-W-S.jpg 96kb http://home.europa.com/~telscope/DAOmodel-72inch.jpg 100kb Fauth Transit. 117kb: Astronomical transit by Fauth, 60 mm aperture, built circa 1884, used at the College of the Pacific, a Methodist institution in California. Transits are used to determine the positions of stars to a high degree of precision. Camill Fauth and his brother in law, George N. Saegmuller, founded an instrument making firm in 1874, at Second Street and Maryland Avenue, S. W., in Washington, D. C. Fauth and his wife returned to Germany in the late 1880s, reportedly because they could not abide the climate in D.C. Objective lenses in many Fauth instruments were made by both John Brashear and Alvan Clark & Sons. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/fauthtrn.jpg Fitz. 110kb: Four inch refractor by Henry Fitz of New York, circa 1850s. This one is an experiment to make the telescope stick out of the card, and is difficult to view. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/fitz.jpg Gaertner. 120kb: Equatorial mount with spring wound clock drive by William Gaertner Company of Chicago; for a portable 3.5 inch refractor built in 1922 and owned by Lowell Observatory. William Gaertner worked for the instrument makers Repsold in Hamburg, and Hilger in London, before emigrating to the U.S., where he was selling laboratory apparatus by 1882. In June 1896, the instrument making firm of Kandler & Gaertner was announced, soon followed by the Gaertner Company, at 5347-5349 Lake Avenue, Chicago, which worked extensively with George E. Hale at Kenwood Observatory. In 1904 the first Gaertner telescope catalog was issued, of 70 pages. Francis Pease was an employee after 1907, when he was already a noted astronomer, later to become a leader at Mt. Wilson. The telescope making shop of O.L Petididier was absorbed into Gaertner in 1918. A huge variety of scientific equipment was designed, made, and sold by Gaertner, which is in business to this day. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/gaertner.jpg Gemini. 120kb: Model of the Gemini telescope. As of 1999, two of these telescopes are nearing completion, at Mauna Kea, Hawaii and Cerro Pachon, Chile. Each has a mirror 8 meters in diameter. Model is located at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, B.C., Canada. Made by Bob Rice of Tucson, Arizona. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/gemini.jpg Harvard. 113kb: Harvard College Observatory, 15 inch Merz and Mahler refractor, built in 1843. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/harvard.jpg Ladd Observatory. 118kb: Brown University, Providence, R.I., dedicated in 1891. Inside is a 12 inch Brashear refractor, with objective lens designed by Charles Hastings. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/laddobs.jpg Melton Observatory. 133kb: University of South Carolina at Columbia, 1928. 40 centimeter Cassegrain reflector, Bausch & Lomb mount, unknown optics. http://astro.physics.sc.edu/htmlpages/Melton/history.html http://home.europa.com/~telscope/meltonob.jpg Mirror Lab. 113kb: University of Arizona, Steward Observatory, 8 meter diameter mirror for the Large Binocular Telescope, from underneath http://home.europa.com/~telscope/mirror~1.jpg 3.5" Mogey. 129kb: Refractor by William Mogey of New York, 3.5 inch aperture, made in 1880s. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/mogey.jpg The Observatory at University of Washington, Seattle. Circa 1892. Six inch Brashear objective on a Warner & Swasey equatorial mount. In 1891 or 1892, Joseph Taylor taught the first astronomy class at U.W., and received a grant of $3,000 from the U.W. regents, of which $2,000 was spent on the (current) telescope and $1,000 on the first observatory, which was built on the original campus on 4th & University in downtown Seattle. A mason was responsible for the pier, a carpenter for the framing, and Taylor himself finished the structure in between classes. The 6 inch Brashear objective possibly cost $650., with the Warner & Swasey mount accounting for the remainder of the roughly $2,000. In recent years, the telescope was still itemized in U.W. inventories with a value of $2,000. In 1895, U.W. moved to Denny Hall at current location, and the observatory was subsequently built of the remaining Tenino sandstone blocks, and is thus the second oldest building on the campus. The equatorial telescope was restored in the late 1990s and is currently in excellent condition. The weight driven clock drive works well. The objective has several very minor blemishes, a few square inches of slight haze, seemingly from water, but overall it is in very good condition. The focuser, slow motion controls, and mechanical parts work well. http://home.europa.com/~telscope/U.Wash-6in-Brashear-W-S.jpg 77kb http://home.europa.com/~telscope/U.Wash-6in-Brashear.jpg 80kb ================================== Photographs were shot with a Canon AE-1 on a slide bar, using about 3 inches separation, and a 28mm or a 50mm lens. Peter Abrahams telscope@europa.com The history of the telescope & the binocular: http://www.europa.com/~telscope/binotele.htm