A visit to the Royal Society

[Helen]

I've been at a meeting at the Royal Society for the last 2 days on comets and the Rosetta Mission in particular.  It has been fascinating.  But lunchtime today was pretty special as we got to see one of Newton's actual telescopes and look at some of the original (handwritten) comet observation reports made by  Caroline Herschel and Robert Hooke (from 1664!).  Here are a few pictures

[Ruud]

It's a lovely little telescope and those manuscripts and observation reports are quite fascinating too.

I never considered that Newton made more than one telescope. I wonder if they improved over time and maybe grew in size.

[Putaendo Patrick]

Great photos, must have been quite an experience! I always remember the story of writer George Sand who visited a monastery in Majorca to view an old and famous manuscript (a map, I think) and tipped a bottle of ink over it by accident!

I think Newton made at least three telescopes, all small table-tops. The first is lost without any trace, the second was presented to the Royal Society but got very damaged and was already lost by the early 18th Century. The one which the Royal Society now has may have once belonged to Edmond Halley. It was restored and sold by Thomas Heath, a London instrument maker, and acquired by the Royal Society in the 1760s. By all accounts the third telescope was the best, and Newton was helped in its construction by John Wickins, another Fellow at Trinity College, whose manual skills were better.

[jambouk]

Very special. What a treat. I hope you kept your ink pot in your pocket

I've always been amazed at how small these telescopes are; the replica at Woolsthorpe Manor is just very dinky. I suspect similar to looking through one half of a pir of binoculars, which in a drk sky with good seeing allows much more to be seen than with he naked eye.

James

[baggywrinkle]

What a fantastic opportunity, thanks for sharing.

When you can stand near and see object and manuscripts like that you can almost feel a presence.  Added to which they made major changes to our perception of our Universe.

[Tzitzis]

Wow! Lucky you. To see one of Newton's actual telescopes should have been a real treat.

[andrew63]

A lovely treat, to reach back in time...

 

 

andrew

[Mark at Beaufort]

A wonderful experience Helen. I went to Budapest as a delegate of a European Union Education programme and saw books by Newton, Galileo etc and was able to handle them without gloves which surprised me. Helen your University programme has had so many wonderful parts to it - so much to enjoy and look back on.

[Peter Drew]

In 1976 I was with an amateur astronomy group that visited the Pulkovo Observatory. We were able to view the original Maksutov that Dimitri Maksutov made to demonstrate his design as well as a 30" achromatic objective he also made.  

[Mick J]

Delightful Helen, just loving the gimball on that telescope - and the new avatar 

[laudropb]

Very nice report on what must have been a wonderful experience.

[Helen]

Thanks everyone, it was indeed special   ,  and great to hear about other people's special moments with historic artifacts too.  Thanks for sharing!

Mark @Mark at Beaufort you are right, so many experiences!  And next week off to Austria for another Rosetta Mission workshop (makes all the hard work worthwhile)

Helen

[Owmuchonomy]

Very interesting thanks for posting.

[Linda]

Nice. I didn't realize mirror telescopes where invented so long ago, but that is of course why Newtonians are called Newtonians.