CARTER OBSERVATORY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21922, 17 January 1946, Page 2

CARTER OBSERVATORY

WARTIME INACTION ENDED CLEANING TELESCOPE The Carter Observatory, Wellington, the research and educative programme of which has been in abeyance since its official opening in 1941, is expected to be reopened to the public early next month. In preparation for this the nine-inch refracting telescope, which is the observatory’s principal instrument, and the second largest of its type in the Dominion, is being cleaned and checked. When the Carter Observatory building was completed in 1941 the telescope was erected in time to be ready for the official opening, but all details were not completed. The director and his assistant then undertook war service. Since his return to the observatory, Mr. I. L. Thomsen, formerly assistant director and now director, has made the cleaning and adjustment of the telescope one of his first tasks, not only so that the observatory may be opened to the public but also to facilitate the more serious astronomical work of the institution. The object glass of the telescope, nine inches in diameter, has not been cleaned since 1924 or earlier. It is actually three pieces of glass in a metal cell, or short tube. It is heavy, although not quite too heavy for a man to lift, but such a precious and easily destroyed object can be handled only with the greatest care. An accident with it could cripple the observatory. The dirt on the lenses is a chemical exudation from the glass as well as dust. The glasses, having been removed from the cell, are washed with soap and water with' the least possible friction. They have to be replaced exactly as before. One piece of glass cannot be rotated from the position which was found best for it when the lens was assembled at the optical .works. Tire ring which retains the glasses in the cell must exert the same pressure as previously or else the lens will not function as it should.