by neufer » Sat Oct 26, 2019 3:33 am
- The dome did seem a tad small for a 24-inch refractor.
https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/98/elizw/Swat.history/Cunningham.html wrote:
<<Susan Cunningham had been a Professor of Mathematics at the college since 1871, and had been involved with Swarthmore from its founding in 1864. Cunningham equiped her observatory with a 6-inch equatorial refracting telescope. In 1906, Cunningham persuaded William Cameron Sproul to fund research quality astronomical equipment for Swarthmore. This equipment included a 24-inch telescope and additional equipment housed in the new Sproul Observatory. In addition, Sproul provided a photographic telescope for Cunningham Observatory, installed in 1908. Stephen Loines donated a 6-inch equatorial telescope to Swarthmore in 1910, which Miller described as "a most convenient instrument ... used rather effectively by students who merely want to 'poke around the sky.'"
Cunningham equipped her observatory with a 6-inch equatorial refracting telescope, a sidereal clock, a meantime clock, and a chronometer, Miller wrote. Astronomy Professor Wulff Heintz said that this telescope was never used for research--it was of instructional quality, even in 1885. Cunningham Observatory continued to be used by astronomy-loving students for independent work after the construction of Sproul Observatory. However, the photographic telescope was soon outdated, and Miller loaned it to the Lowell Observatory of Arizona, where Lampland was looking for a 9th planet with photographic telescopes. The first photograph of the planet Pluto was taken with the Swarthmore telescope, although Lampland died before measuring that photographic plate. When Tombaugh later found evidence for the existence of Pluto in the 1930s, he located the earlier photographic plate taken with the Swarthmore telescope in the Lowell archives, and used it to help determine Pluto's orbit. The telescope was returned to Swarthmore upon Lampland's death.
Professor Heintz arrived at Swarthmore in the 1960s. By then, he said, the observatory portion of the building was totally dilapidated, though other portion of the building was still used as a residence. "I would bet that nobody had set foot in there for years," he said, though he had heard that the telescopes were occasionally used for watching meteors and comets in the 1950s. In 1972, the Cunningham building became the home of the Scott Arboretum.
Professor Heintz wanted only the telescopes. So, the non-functional photographic telescope was mothballed in the basement of Sproul. Around 1985, Lowell Observatory asked if the telescope could be displayed in its lobby, and Heintz agreed to donate the telescope to them, "to get it out of the basement." The original refracting telescope which Susan Cunningham purchased in 1888 was taken by crane from Cunningham Observatory to the roof of the computer science wing of Sproul, where it remains today. Heintz said that this telescope may still be used by any student who has been taught how to use it properly--the key is available to such students from the department secretary.>>
[quote="Joe Stieber" post_id=296463 time=1572047841 user_id=128088]
However, this picture shows [url=https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/98/elizw/Swat.history/Cunningham.html]Cunningham House[/url] in the [url=https://www.scottarboretum.org/gardens-tour/scott-entrance-garden/]Scott Arboretum[/url] at Swarthmore College, which predates the Sproul Observatory. The [url=https://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/program/history/sproul.html]Sproul Observatory[/url] is where van de Kamp made his observations with the 24-inch refractor (I looked through that scope many decades ago), which has since been [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sproul_Observatory]dismantled and moved[/url]. Currently, the main scope at Swarthmore is a 24-inch reflector in the [url=https://www.swarthmore.edu/peter-van-de-kamp-observatory]Peter van de Camp Observatory[/url] atop the Science Center building.
[/quote]
[list]The dome did seem a tad small for a 24-inch refractor.[/list]
[quote=https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/98/elizw/Swat.history/Cunningham.html]
[float=left][img3="The Great Pumpkin?"]https://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/98/elizw/Swat.history/Cunningham.gif[/img3][/float]
<<Susan Cunningham had been a Professor of Mathematics at the college since 1871, and had been involved with Swarthmore from its founding in 1864. Cunningham equiped her observatory with a 6-inch equatorial refracting telescope. In 1906, Cunningham persuaded William Cameron Sproul to fund research quality astronomical equipment for Swarthmore. This equipment included a 24-inch telescope and additional equipment housed in the new Sproul Observatory. In addition, Sproul provided a photographic telescope for Cunningham Observatory, installed in 1908. Stephen Loines donated a 6-inch equatorial telescope to Swarthmore in 1910, which Miller described as "a most convenient instrument ... used rather effectively by students who merely want to 'poke around the sky.'"
[b][color=#0000FF]Cunningham equipped her observatory with a 6-inch equatorial refracting telescope, a sidereal clock, a meantime clock, and a chronometer, Miller wrote. Astronomy Professor Wulff Heintz said that this telescope was never used for research--it was of instructional quality, even in 1885. Cunningham Observatory continued to be used by astronomy-loving students for independent work after the construction of Sproul Observatory. However, the photographic telescope was soon outdated, and Miller loaned it to the Lowell Observatory of Arizona, where Lampland was looking for a 9th planet with photographic telescopes. [u]The first photograph of the planet Pluto was taken with the Swarthmore telescope, although Lampland died before measuring that photographic plate. When Tombaugh later found evidence for the existence of Pluto in the 1930s, he located the earlier photographic plate taken with the Swarthmore telescope in the Lowell archives, and used it to help determine Pluto's orbit. The telescope was returned to Swarthmore upon Lampland's death.[/u]
[/color][/b]
Professor Heintz arrived at Swarthmore in the 1960s. By then, he said, the observatory portion of the building was totally dilapidated, though other portion of the building was still used as a residence. "I would bet that nobody had set foot in there for years," he said, though he had heard that the telescopes were occasionally used for watching meteors and comets in the 1950s. In 1972, the Cunningham building became the home of the Scott Arboretum. [b][color=#0000FF]Professor Heintz wanted only the telescopes. So, the non-functional photographic telescope was mothballed in the basement of Sproul. Around 1985, Lowell Observatory asked if the telescope could be displayed in its lobby, and Heintz agreed to donate the telescope to them, "to get it out of the basement."[/color][/b] The original refracting telescope which Susan Cunningham purchased in 1888 was taken by crane from Cunningham Observatory to the roof of the computer science wing of Sproul, where it remains today. Heintz said that this telescope may still be used by any student who has been taught how to use it properly--the key is available to such students from the department secretary.>> [/quote]