Session Abstract

Historical Observatories and their Instruments

Session Organiser: Françoise Le Guet Tully

The creation of two major astronomical institutions in Paris and Greenwich at the end of the seventeenth century was followed by the development of many public or private observatories in European countries, in America and finally all over the world. In 1907 a publication of the Observatoire royal de Belgique listed 467 sites - both public and private. Of these 293 were in Europe, 113 in North America, 18 in Asia, 17 in Latin America, 15 in Oceania and 11 in Africa. The best ones were equipped with meridian and equatorial instruments, micrometers, clocks, etc., built by a few makers of world repute aware of each other’s work.

Since most of the astronomical instruments that were once considered large have always been few in number and often unique, they were important elements in the competition that always took place between astronomical institutions. As a consequence the history of these instruments, as well as the history of the observatories which acquired them, are entangled. A comparative approach can therefore be of interest from a purely historical point of view.

Another reason for organizing the present session is that all the observatories, which in the past played an important role in observational astronomy, have had to face the same problem. Since the fate of astronomical instruments is always to be superseded by ones that are larger or more sophisticated, what happens to these obsolete and often bulky objects? A comparative approach of the policies in action - including the absence of policy - can be instructive for historians as well as for custodians of historical instruments or for the persons who are today legally in charge of these collections. What are the problems and issues that need to be faced, and how to tackle them, are two of the questions that will also be discussed.

We will hear about a wide range of experience from a panel of seven historical observatories, with one additional observatory covered in the poster session. Of this total of eight, six were situated in Europe, one in South America and one in Africa, the last two having had strong links with French astronomers and makers at the time of their creation.

The Marseille Observatory and its instruments

Dr James Caplan and Guy Boistel

The Marseille Observatory began operations in 1702 near the Vieux Port as a Jesuit establishment, subsidized by the French Navy. Since 1763, when the Jesuits were expelled, it has been a state institution. Among the instruments conserved are some from the mid-18th century when the Marseille Observatory, under the direction of Esprit Pezenas, was particularly well equipped. Archives reveal intriguing details concerning the acquisition of the instruments. In the 1860s (and until 1873), the Marseille Observatory became an annex of the Paris Observatory, under the orders of Le Verrier, and was moved to its present site where new instruments were installed, notably the 80-cm Foucault telescope. From this period the Foucault telescope remains (although its dome has disappeared), and also the 1872 Merz-Eichens refractor which is still in operating condition. Our conservation efforts will be described, along with long-term plans related to the Observatory’s recent merger and its planned move to a new site.

The Old Stockholm Observatory and its Instruments

Inga Elmqvist

This paper will outline the history of the Stockholm old observatory tracing its instruments and the scientific issues that the scientists worked with. In 1991 the building was opened up as a museum and now there are optimistic plans of transforming more of the building into space for museum purposes. When planning for the ‘new museum’, questions about which story to tell the visitors are evoked.

The Stockholm old observatory was founded in 1748 and inaugurated in 1753. Already before the inauguration, the Academy had received a few gifts with instruments to equip the observatory. This did not suffice. Instruments were ordered from the Swedish instrument maker Daniel Ekström, whose workshop was located in the basement of the observatory. The untimely death of Ekström in 1755 posed a specific problem as the ordered instruments were not yet finished. New orders were made through John Ellicott in London: a quadrant and a transit instrument from John Bird, an achromatic telescope from Dollond. Clocks were ordered from clockmakers in Stockholm: Gustaf Nylander and Petter Ernst. Objectives were ordered from Carl Lehnberg in Sweden. Many of the instruments in the inventory lists from the end of the 18th century are still extant in the collections of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

In the 1820s a transit instrument and a meridian circle were ordered from Reichenbach and Ertel in Munich, and with the new instruments the Stockholm meridian was moved to a better position. During the 19th century research was focused on geodetical questions. In the latter part of the 19th century most of the instruments were considered to be rather old and changes were needed. With the appointment of professor Hugo Gyldén, in 1875, a refractor from Repsold & Söhne in Hamburg was ordered and placed in the newly added tower built on top of the building. After the astrophotographical congress in Paris in 1887 a photographical objective from Steinheil & Söhne in Munich was ordered. The last large instrument to be mounted was a mirror telescope from Carl Zeiss bought before the eclipse of the sun in 1914.

In 1931 the new observatory at Saltsjöbaden in south Stockholm was inaugurated. Already at this time the idea of turning the old observatory into a museum of the history of science and instruments was suggested by Vilhelm Carlheim-Gyllensköld, but the building was sold to the city of Stockholm. Most of the contents were taken away and the building underwent a historic renovation and other modernizing changes. Thereafter, it was used by the university as a geographical institution. In the 1980s the building was in very bad shape owing to lack of repair and for a time was threatened with being transformed into a mosque. Some of the instruments, artefacts and furniture were brought back to their original milieu. In the museum the 18th century was especially emphasized, although the meridian room from the 1820s was reconstructed. Besides astronomy, meteorology and geography were granted a place. In January 1999 the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences was able to buy the building back to safeguard the future existence of the museum. Now plans are proceeding to develop an enlarged museum. Work consisting of further reconstructions and adding new features is in progress.

Thematic or chronological arrangement for an exhibition of ancient instruments? The case of the Brera Astronomical Observatory (Milan)

Dr Antonella Testa

The Brera Astronomical Observatory was founded in 1764 by Ruggero Guiseppe Boscovich, S.J. (1711-1787) in the Brera Palace, in the centre of the city of Milan, which was, at that time, under the Austrian rule. The Observatory reached the highest renown at the end of the 18th and in the second half of the 19th centuries, especially thanks to the excellent studies of Barnaba Oriani (1752-1832) and Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835-1910). Instruments, building, archives and library of the Observatory, where these astronomers and other scientists worked, have been recovered and restored. A permanent Exhibition, open to the public at large, has been organized in which some of the most important instruments from the beginning to the second post-war period are shown.

In this paper will be presented the collection of the instruments, stressing the criteria with which the exhibition was organized. Assembling the instruments in thematic areas makes the evolution of the instrumentation more evident than ordering according to chronological criteria. Starting from Dollond’s refractors of the end of the 1760s, through meteorological and cartographic instruments, transit instruments and so on, we will review the different exhibition areas. Emphasis will be given to instruments of this century.

Surviving astronomical instruments in Ireland from the late 18th and 19th centuries

Dr John Butler

In many ways, the 19th century was a golden age for Irish astronomy. Not only was the largest telescope in the world of the 19th century, built and erected in Ireland, but several richly furnished private and public observatories were situated there. During the second half of the 19th century, the Dublin firm of Grubb, was the premier telescope manufacturing company in the British Isles. We list the principal surviving instruments in Ireland from this period and illustrate recent attempts to conserve them as a part of the island’s often neglected scientific heritage.