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Dearborn Telescope
Date: 2008/Aug/20 Wed
The story of this telescope begins with an optically superb 18-1/2 inch lens, ground in the shop of famed lens-maker Alvan Clark of Massachusetts in 1864, for an observatory at the University of MIssissippi.
The Civil War prevented the delivery of the lens. Instead, the Chicago Astronomical Society purchased it, installing the lens in this walnut-veneered tube on a mounting designed by Clark. The telescope eventually became the centerpiece of the new Dearborn Observatory at Northwestern University.
Over the decades, the telescope was used to study double stars and to provide data to measure star distances. By attaching a spectrograph, astronomers were able to analyze the light from distant stars and determine their composition.
In 1929, Northwestern removed the lens, installed it in anew tube and mounting, and donated the original instrument (without its lens) to the Alder Planetarium. The refitted lens continues to provide images of the Universe today, nearly 140 years after it was made.
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