THE GREAT EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE AT MELBOURNE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1041, 20 April 1869, Page 3

THE GREAT EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE AT MELBOURNE.

(Prom the Melbourne Daily "Telegraph.") Melboubne now possesses one of the wonders of the age, the largest telescope in the world mounted equatorially. The new observatory is complete except tho roof, the monster tube is fixed on its revolving axis, and can now be made to sweep the heavens in every direction from the horizon to the zenith by a gentle pres. sure of the hand, and can then be brought back to its resting-place with tho same ease with which the captain of a merchantman stows away his bring-um-near in a bunker. In a fortnight from this Mr. Enoch Chambers will have completed his contract for tbe shifting roof of the building ; the great speculum which has already been fitted will be fixed ; the eye-glass will be screwed into its proper place, and the work of observation will begin. The great telescope has already been fully described in the columns of our elder contemporaries. It was manufactured by Mr. Howard Grubb, of Dublin, and is said to be his masterpiece. Thore is no larger telescope in this planet, whatever there may be in others. Lord Rosse's is as large, but it is not mounted. Its weight is about eight tons, and it can be moved by the observers, who themselves move with it, almost without an effort. The mounting is a wonder in mechanism. One axis (polar) is placed parallel to the pole of the earth, and the other (declination), whioh carries the tele-

scope in a cradle at one end, at right angles to it. The telescope can be directed to any celestial object above the horizon, and its course can be followed from its rising to its setting, by means of clock work admirably designed and -carefully carried out. In less than fourteen days j everything will be completed, and it may be that public curiosity will be gratified ' by an inspection of the tame but powerful monster, and ifc will be then handed over to the keeping of Mr. Ellery, and the cause of science. When in actual use, tho telescope will be, to all purposes, in the open air, the roof being made to run in tramways, so that the whole of the heavens are open to observation. The first duties which it will be made to subserve will be an investigation of the nebulas of the Southern Hemisphere, those which Herschel observed years ago from the Cape of Good Hope, with a view to map them down more clearly, and to note any physical changes which may have taken, place in them. At the samo time the planets 'will be carefully and attentively watched, and spectroscopic observations will be taken. A great desire exists among the savems of Europe for a careful survey ofthe Southern Hemisphere by British observers, and the duty has been deputed to the observatories of the Cape of Good Hope, Madras, and Melbourne. There is a weight of correspondence attached to the head of this department which few of the general public will be ready to comprehend. Applications pour in from Chili, Peru, Sweden, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Boston, Madrid, and even Mexico, for reports of observations Of any of sundry and particular conjunctions. Spain appears to be wonderfully waking up in a direction in which she was formerly the leader of the nations. If the Government had laid out all the public money as well as tbat expended on the new telescope, the people would have little to complain of. To Mr. Verdon and Mr. M'Culloch we are chiefly indebted for the practical energy displayed in this instance, in establishing Melbourne as the centre of southern scientific observations.