Small Telescopes

Index:
Handheld: Brass; Nautical; Harrison
Small: “Galpin”; “Maclear”; Dollond; Jones

INSTRUMENT: Handheld Telescopes

Description: Brass & Copper
South African Cultural History Museum (785)
Source:
-(R13)

Description: Made by Harrison – London
South African Cultural History Museum (4992)
Source:
-(R13)

Description: Land & Nautical
Made by L. J. Druiff – Cape Town
Held at Observatory Museum Grahamstown.
Source:
-(R14)

INSTRUMENT: Small Telescopes

Description: 8.5-inch (2-cm) reflector.

Observatory Museum in Grahamstown. Belonged to Galpin. Instrument fitted with spotter scope and mounted on an adjustable stand. Could be used on the Camera Obscura. Only Camera Obscura in South Africa.
Source:
-(R14) Observatory Museum acq. no.
-Bulpin T.V., Discovering Southern Africa, p.429.

Description: Telescope used by Maclear.

Source:
-(R12) Museum Africa acq. no. MA 772

Description: Dollond 7.62-cm / 3-inch Refractor

(1840’s – ?)
Location: Cape Observatory

At the Cape Observatory the main building were designed with a Transit Room and a Circle Room. The instruments were installed and worked well. Two domes were also mounted on the roof of the building, and the rooms under the domes were located on the second floor, had wooden floors and no supporting pillars. Maclear installed the Herschel 14 ft telescope under one of the domes but observation was impossible due to the vibrating floors. In order to be able to use other instruments Maclear got out his auxiliary telescopes. The Dollond 3-inch telescope was one of these auxiliary telescopes. (The others being the Herschel 14 ft– and the Jones 3 ½ -inch telescopes)
The telescope was a very good instrument and Maclear was enthralled with it and wrote; “It is the work of Mr Dollond, and is most certainly the most perfect of its dimensions I have met with.” [Warner – Astronomers, p.63.]

In order to observe Maclear decided to erect the instrument outside of the main building. In January 1844 a make shift dome was erected. “A square building of wood supported on 4 cast iron wheels and rotating on a brick railway even with the common surface of the ground … to the North of the Mural Circle … the frame work is covered with ¼ inch deal, with roof shutters in the ordinary way … area of the square building is 8 feet square.” [Warner – Astronomers, p.63.]

In 1847 a permanent dome was constructed 52 yards (47.5 meters) North of the East Wing of the main building. It was a circular stone building with a rotating roof and shutter. The Dollond 3-inch was mounted equatorially in the “English” style, i.e. with north and south piers, built of stone, and a polar axis 7 ½ feet in length.

Source:
-Warner, B., Astronomers at the Royal Observatory Cape of Good Hope.

Description: Jones 9-cm / 3. ½ -inch

(1840’s – ?)
Location: Cape Observatory

At the Cape Observatory the main building were designed with a Transit Room and a Circle Room. The instruments were installed and worked well. Two domes were also mounted on the roof of the building, and the rooms under the domes were located on the second floor, had wooden floors and no supporting pillars. Maclear installed the Herschel 14 ft telescope under one of the domes but observation was impossible due to the vibrating floors. In order to be able to use other instruments Maclear got out his auxiliary telescopes. The Jones 3 ½ -inch telescope was one of these auxiliary telescopes. (The others being the Herschel 14 ft– and the Dollond 3-inch telescopes)

Maclear wanted to erect the telescope in its own separate dome on the observatory grounds. It is known that a site was prepared for construction, but there is no evidence that a building was ever erected.

No detail is available about the telescope itself. Later years this instrument was converted into a collimator for the Airy Transit Circle. (Therefore the telescope must have been a refractor?) [Warner – Astronomers, p.63.]