List of largest optical refracting telescopes
Here is a list of the largest optical refracting telescopes sorted by lens diameter and focal length.
The largest practical functioning refracting telescope is the Yerkes Observatory 40 inch (102 cm) refractor, used for astronomical and scientific observation for over a century.
Most are classical Great refractors, which used achromatic doublets on an equatorial mount. However, other large refractors include a 21st-century Solar telescope which is not directly comparable because it uses a single element non-achromatic lens, and the short-lived Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900. It used a 78-inch (200 cm) Focault siderostat for aiming light into the Image-forming optical system part of the telescope, which had a 125 cm diameter lens. Using a siderostat incurs a reflective loss. Larger meniscus lenses have been used in later catadioptric telescopes which mix refractors and reflectors in the image-forming part of the telescope. As with reflecting telescopes, there was an ongoing struggle to balance cost with size, quality, and usefulness.
| Name/Observatory | Location at debut |
Modern location name or fate | Lens diameter | Focal length | Built | Comments | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yerkes Observatory[1] | Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA | - | 102 cm (40″) | 19.4 m (62′) | 1897 | Largest in current operation.[2] |  |
| Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900 | Paris 1900 Exposition | Dismantled 1900 | 125 cm (49.21") | 57 m (187 feet) | 1900 | Fixed lens, scrapped. Aimed via a 2m reflecting siderostat |  |
| Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, ORM | La Palma, Spain | - | 98 cm (39.37") | 15 m | 2002 | Single element non-achromatic objective[3] combined with reflective Adaptive optics and a Schupmann corrector. |  |
| James Lick telescope Lick Observatory | Mount Hamilton, California, USA | - | 91 cm (36″) | 17.6 m | 1888 |  | |
| Grande Lunette Paris Observatory | Meudon, France | - | 83 cm + 62 cm (32.67" + 24.40") | 16.2 m | 1891 | Double telescope | |
| Großer Refraktor Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam | Potsdam, Deutsches Kaiserreich | Potsdam, Germany | 80 cm + 50 cm (31.5"+19.5") | 12.0 m | 1899 | Double telescope |  |
| Grande Lunette Nice Observatory | Nice, France | since 1988 Côte d'Azur Observatory | 77 cm (30.3″) [4][5] | 17.9 m | 1886 | Bischoffscheim funded |  |
| William Thaw Telescope Allegheny Observatory, University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA | - | 76 cm (30″) | 14.1 m | 1914 | Brashear made, photographic[6] |  |
| Pulkovo observatory | Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | Destroyed | 76 cm (30″) | 12.8 m (42 feet) | 1885 | Destroyed during WWII, only lens (made by Alvan Clark & Sons) survives. |  |
| 28-inch Grubb Refractor Royal Greenwich Observatory | Greenwich, London, Great Britain | - | 71 cm (28″) | 8.5 m | 1894 |  | |
| Großer Refraktor Vienna Observatory | Vienna, Austrian Empire | Vienna, Austria | 69 cm (27" ) | 10.5 m | 1880 | Largest refractor in 1880 [7] |  |
| Great Treptow Refractor Treptow Observatory | Berlin, Germany | - | 68 cm (26.77") | 21 m | 1896 | renamed Archenhold Observatory 1946 |  |
| Leander McCormick Observatory | Charlottesville, Virginia, USA | - | 66 cm (26" ) | 9.9 m | 1884 | completed c. 1874, installed 1884 |  |
| U.S. Naval Observatory | Foggy Bottom Washington, DC, USA | moved to Northwest, Washington, D.C., 1893 | 66 cm (26") | 9.9 m | 1873 | Largest refractor in 1873. Alvan Clark & Sons mounting replaced with Warner & Swasey mounting in 1893. |  |
| Royal Greenwich Observatory | Herstmonceux, Great Britain | - | 66 cm (26") | 6.82 m | 1896 | ||
| Yale-Columbia Refractor Yale Southern Station | Johannesburg, Union of South Africa | Relocated 1952 | 66 cm (26") | 10.8 m | 1925–1952 | Yale-Columbia Refractor moved to Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1952, same telescope as following entry. | |
| Yale-Columbia Refractor Mount Stromlo Observatory | Mount Stromlo, Australia | Destroyed 2003 | 66 cm (26") | 10.8 m | 1952 | Yale-Columbia Refractor - Previously located in South Africa. Relocated to Australia in 1952. Destroyed by bush fire on January 18, 2003.[8] |  |
| 65 cm Zeiss Refractor, Pulkovo observatory | Germany[9] | Saint Petersburg, Russia | 65 cm (25.59″) | 10.413 m | 1954 | War reparation from Germany[9] In Pulkovo since 1954. |  |
| Llano del Hato National Astronomical Observatory | Llano del Hato, Venezuela | - | 65 cm (25.6″) | 10.5 m | 1955 | ||
| Belgrade Observatory [10] | Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia | Belgrade, Serbia | 65 cm (25.6″) | 10.55 m | 1932 | Zeiss made lens, same as at Berlin Observatory |  |
| Hida Observatory | Gifu, Japan | - | 65 cm (25.6″) | 10.50 m | 1972 | ||
| Observatory History Museum Mitaka 65 cm | Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan | - | 65 cm (25.6″) | 1929 | Carl Zeiss Jena |  | |
| Berlin-Babelsberg Observatory Berliner Sternwarte Babelsberg | Berlin, Germany | 65 cm (26 in) | 10.12 m (33 ft) | 1914 | Berlin Observatory just moved to Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1913; Zeiss lens |  | |
| Newall Refractor National Observatory of Athens | UK | Athens, Greece since 1957 | 62.5 cm (24.5″) | 8.86 m (29 ft) | 1869 | Built by Thomas Cooke for Robert Stirling Newall. First located at his estate; donated and relocated to Cambridge Observatory in 1889; donated to Athens Observatory and relocated to Mt. Penteli in Greece in 1957. Currently used only for educational purposes as part of the visitor center. | |
| Lowell Observatory | Arizona, USA | - | 61 cm (24″) | 9.75 m (32 ft) | 1894 | Alvan Clark & Sons telescope |  |
| Sproul Observatory | Pennsylvania, USA | - | 61 cm (24″) | 11.0 m (36 ft) | 1911 | ||
| Craig telescope | Wandsworth Common, London | Dismantled 1857 | 61 cm (24″) | 24.5 m (80 feet) | 1852 | Problem with lens figuring [11] | |
| Grubb Parsons Double Refractor | Saltsjöbaden, Sweden | - | 60 + 50 cm (23.6″ + 19.7") | 8.0 m | 1930 | Stockholms Observatory in Saltsjöbaden | |
| Radcliffe Double Refractor University of London Observatory | Oxford, UK | Mill Hill, London | 60 + 45 cm (23.6″ + 18") | 7.0 m | 1901 | Obtained from the Radcliffe Observatory and installed at ULO in 1938 | |
| Zeiss Double Refractor Bosscha Observatory | Bandung, Dutch East Indies | Bandung, Indonesia | 60 cm (23.6″) | 10.7 m | 1928 |  | |
| Der Große Refraktor (Great Refractor) Hamburg Observatory | Bergedorf, Germany | - | 60 cm (23.6″) | 9 m | 1911 |  | |
| Halstead Observatory | Princeton, USA | Roper Mountain Science Center,[12] Greenville, SC | 58.4 cm (23″) | 9.8 m (32 ft) | 1881 | by Alvan Clark & Sons | |
| Chamberlin Observatory | Colorado, USA | - | 50 cm (20″) | 8.5 m (28 ft) | 1891 | First Light 1894 |  |
| Van Vleck Observatory | Connecticut, USA | - | 50 cm (20″) | 8.4 m (27.5 ft) | 1922 |  | |
| Chabot Observatory | Oakland, California, USA (2000) | 50 cm (20″) | 8.5 m (28 ft) | 1914 | "Rachael" Warner & Swazey Company (Optics John A Brashear Company) Refurb in 2000 and moved to present location. |  | |
| Carnegie Double Astrograph Lick Observatory | Mount Hamilton, California, USA | not in service threatened with removal | 50 cm (20″) | 4.67 m (14 ft) | 1941 | F7.4 | |
| Imperial Observatory | Straßburg, German Empire | Strasbourg, France | 48.5 cm (19.1″) | 7 m (23 ft) | 1880 [13] | Then largest in German Empire |  |
| 18½-in Dearborn Observatory Refractor | Chicago, USA | Evanston, USA | 47 cm (18.5″) | 1862 | by Alvan Clark & Sons |  | |
| Wilder Observatory | Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA | - | 46 cm (18″) | (25 ft) | 1903 | by Alvan Clark & Sons |  |
| Flower Observatory | Philadelphia, USA | - | 46 cm (18″) | 6.7 m (22.6 ft) | 1896 | ||
| Royal Observatory | Cape Colony, British Empire | South Africa | 46 cm (18″) | 6.7 m (22.6 ft) | 1897 | [14] | |
| Gran Ecuatorial Gautier Telescope La Plata Astronomical Observatory | La Plata, Argentina | - | 43.3 cm (17″) | 9,7 m | 1894 | Gautier |  |
| Brashear Refractor, Goodsell Observatory | Northfield, Minnesota, USA | - | 41.15 cm (16.2″) | 1890 | by John Brashear | ||
| Herget Telescope Cincinnati Observatory | Cincinnati, Ohio | - | 40.64 cm (16″) | 1904 | by Alvan Clark & Sons |  | |
| Dorides Refractor [15] National Observatory of Athens | Athens, Greece | Athens, Greece | 40 cm (16″) | 5,08 m | 1901 | by Gautier [16] | |
| Washburn Observatory | Madison, Wisconsin, USA | - | 39.5 cm (15.56″) | 6.7 m (22.6 ft) | 1881 | by Alvan Clark & Sons | |
| Harvard Great Refractor Harvard College Observatory [17] | Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | - | 38 cm (15″) | 1847 | largest telescope in America for 20 years [18] |  | |
| Gran Ecuatorial Observatorio Astronómico Nacional | Tacubaya, México | - | 38 cm (15") | 4.8 m | 1885 | by Howard Grubb | |
| Lunette Arago Paris Observatory | Paris, France | - | 38 cm (15") | 9 m | 1883 | by Gautier and Henry brothers |  |
| Telescopio Amici Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri | Florence, Italy | - | 36 cm | 5 m | 1872 | 28 cm lens by G. B. Amici substituted by Zeiss lens in 1926. Currently used only for educational purposes. | |
| Photographic Refractor Leiden Observatory | Leiden, Netherlands | - | 34 cm + 15 cm (13.4″ + 5.9") | 524 cm | 1897 | Double telescope by Gautier and Henry brothers | |
| Dominion Observatory Refractor Dominion Observatory | Ottawa, Canada | Moved to Helen Sawyer-Hogg Observatory (Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa) in 1974 [19] | 38.1 cm (15″) | 571.5 cm | 1905 | Original achromat doublet by John Brashear replaced with apochomat triplet by Perkin-Elmer in 1958. Currently used for education and outreach. | |
| Fitz-Clark Refractor Allegheny Observatory, University of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA | - | 32.02 cm (13") | 4.62 | 1861 | Fitz made, visual/photographic. In 1895 Established that Saturn's Rings to be made up of particles and not solid.[6] | |
| Bamberg Refractor Urania Observatory (Berlin) | Berlin-Moabit, Prussia | Berlin, Germany | 31.4 cm (12.36") | 5 m | 1889 | then biggest in Prussia, moved to Insulaner Wilhelm-Foerster Observatory in 1963 [20] | |
| Grubb refractor, | Oxford, England | Keele University, England (since 1962),
in use for the public |
31.0 cm
(12.25") |
4.39 m | 1874 | Still awaiting the reunion with its 19th-century camera used in the Carte du Ciel project and to prove Einstein's general relativity theory during the 1919 solar eclipse. |  |
| Ladd Observatory, Brown University | Providence, Rhode Island, USA | Still in use for instruction and public education | 30 cm (12″) 12.0-inch (300 mm) | 4.57 m (15 ft) | 1891 | Lens designed by Charles S. Hastings and made by John Brashear; telescope mount by George N. Saegmuller |  |
| Irving Porter Church Memorial Telescope Fuertes Observatory | Ithaca, New York | Still used for instruction and public outreach. | 30 cm (12″) | - | 1922 | Optics by John Brashear, mounting by Warner & Swasey. |  |
| Silesian Planetarium and Astronomical Observatory | Katowice/Chorzów, Silesia, Poland | 30 cm (12")[21] | 4.5 m | 1955 | Largest and oldest Planetarium and Astronomical Observatory in Poland.[22] The 3rd largest in Eastern Europe (east of Germany), after Pulkovo Observatory in Saint Petersburg, Russia and Belgrade Observatory in Belgrade, Serbia |  | |
| Urania Sternwarte (Zurich) | Zurich, Switzerland | - | 30 cm (12″) | 5.05 m | 1907 | by Fraunhofer and Zeiss |  |
| University of Illinois Observatory | Urbana, Illinois, USA | - | 30 cm (12″) | 1896 | by John Brashear, National Historic Landmark, still used for instruction |  | |
| Jewett Observatory | Pullman, Washington, USA | Used for instruction and pleasure | 30 cm (12") | 4.57 m (15') | Assembled from older parts 1953 [23] | Alvan Clark & Sons |  |
| Mitchell Telescope Cincinnati Observatory | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA | - | 28 cm (11″) | 1843 | Merz & Mahler; Oldest professional telescope still used weekly by the public[24] |  | |
| Brashear Refractor Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA | - | 28 cm (11″) | 1910 | John Brashear, Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh [25] ll | ||
| Repsold Refractor (10-duims) Leiden Observatory | Leiden, Netherlands | - | 26.6 cm (10.5″) | 399,5 cm | 1885 | Repsold and Sons, optics by Alvan Clark & Sons | |
| Mills Observatory | Dundee, Scotland (1951) | 25 cm (10″) | 1871 | by T. Cooke & Sons. Training telescope at St. Andrews 1938-1951 |  | ||
| Coats Observatory | Paisley, Scotland (1898) | 25 cm (10″) | 1898 | by Howard Grubb. Replaced 5" refractor by Thomas Cooke, installed in 1883.]]. |  | ||
| Quito Astronomical Observatory | Quito | La Alameda park | 24 cm | 1875 | An operational 1875 Merz Telescopes and one of the Oldest Observatories in South America, founded in 1873. |  | |
| Fraunhofer-Refraktor Berlin Observatory | Berlin-Kreuzberg, Deutsches Kaiserreich | Moved 1913 to Munich, Germany | 24 cm (9.6″) | 4 m (13.4′) | 1835 | Used to discover Neptune; in Deutsches Museum, München since 1913[26] |  |
| Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory Named in memory of Hume Blake Cronyn | University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada | - | 25.4 cm (10″) | 4.37 m (172") | 1940 | Built by Perkin Elmer Corp. Second largest refractor in Canada. Continues as Canada's oldest public astronomy venue. | |
| Great Dorpat Refractor (Fraunhofer) Dorpat/Tartu Observatory | Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia | Tartu, Estonia | 24 cm (9.6″) | 4 m (13.4′) | 1824 | "..the first modern, achromatic, refracting telescope." [27][28] |  |
See also
- List of largest optical reflecting telescopes
- List of largest optical telescopes in the 20th century
- List of largest optical telescopes in the 19th century
- List of largest optical telescopes in the 18th century
References
- ↑ http://astro.uchicago.edu/vtour/40inch/
- ↑ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/653042/Yerkes-Observatory
- ↑ solarphysics.kva.se The Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope "By using a lens of a single glass, excellent image quality is obtained through very narrow filters that isolate a single wavelength or color."
- ↑ The Observatory, "Large Telescopes", Page 248
- ↑ British university observatories, 1772-1939 By Roger Hutchins;page 252
- 1 2 http://www.flamsteed.info/fasother6_files/page0001.htm
- ↑ http://www.flamsteed.info/fasother6_files/page0006.htm
- ↑ Mount Stromlo Observatory brochure, page 12, The 26" Yale-Columbia Refractor, Australian National University, 2004, accessed 19 April 2008
- 1 2 Journal for the history of astronomy vol. 28, pt. 2, p. 177 (1997), Title: Book Review: Pulkovo / St. Petersburg : Spuren der Sterne und der Zeiten : Geschichte der russischen Hauptsternwarte / Peter Lang, New York, 1995, Bibliographic Code: 1997JHA....28..177H
- ↑ http://www.aob.bg.ac.rs/
- ↑ http://www.craig-telescope.co.uk/
- ↑ http://www.ropermountain.org/Observatory/observatory.shtml
- ↑ http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/scientific-american/Scientific-American-Reference-Book/The-Large-Refractors-Of-The-World.html
- ↑ Scientific American Reference Book. A Manual for the Office, Household and Shop Author Albert A. Hopkins, A. Russell Bond Publisher Munn & Company Year 1905 Copyright 1904, Munn & Company
- ↑ http://www.hasi.gr/instruments/ast72
- ↑ http://www.hasi.gr/makers/gautier-paul-ferdinand
- ↑ http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco/grref.html
- ↑ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations//groundup/lesson/scopes/harvard/index.php
- ↑ http://www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca/english/whatson/hogg_observatory.cfm
- ↑ http://www.wfs.be.schule.de/pages/hist/Bamberge.html
- ↑ http://www.planetarium.edu.pl/oferta.htm
- ↑ http://www.planetarium.chorzow.net.pl/onas_eng.htm
- ↑ http://astro.wsu.edu/observatory.html
- ↑ http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/history.html
- ↑ http://3ap.org/>
- ↑ http://bdaugherty.tripod.com/astronomy/berlin.html#GALLE
- ↑ Waaland, J. Robert (1967). "Fraunhofer and the Great Dorpat Refractor". American Journal of Physics. 35: 344. Bibcode:1967AmJPh..35..344W. doi:10.1119/1.1974076.
- ↑ http://www.obs.ee/obs/instrumendid/fr.htm
Further reading
- "The illustrated encyclopedia of the universe" By Ian Ridpath (Google Books)
- List of largest refracting telescopes circa 1914 List
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