The Association owns about 200 instruments for loan to members, although the majority of them are currently in use. Application for loan is to be made to the Curator of Instruments, and must be supported by a Section Director or by a member of at least five years' standing. Preference is given to those who intend to participate, or who are already participating, in the work of the Observing Sections, and normally few items are available for beginners.

Purchase of equipment

The Association does not recommend or endorse any specific make of telescope or other equipment, but enquiries can be passed to members who can provide advice about choosing and purchasing wisely.

Further Details of The Instrument Collection
R.A. Marriott, Curator

When the Association was founded in 1890 there were no immediate thoughts about forming an instrument collection, which ten years later consisted of only six instruments: a diffraction grating (No.1) presented by John Brashear in 1890, a 4-inch photographic refractor (No.2) presented by G.E. Niblett in 1895, an 18-inch reflector with optics by G.H. With (No.3) presented by N.E. Green (then President) in 1897, a 2-inch transit instrument (No.4) presented by Tyson Crawford (senior partner at Dollond's) in 1897, a 3-inch refractor (No.5) presented by G.T. Davis in 1899, and a 3.5-inch refractor by Wray (No.6) bequeathed by Elizabeth Brown in 1899.

By 1940 the number of instruments in the collection had risen to 78, only 1 of which had been purchased, the rest having accrued from presentations or bequests. To date the number of instruments acquired - telescopes, mirrors, OGs, cameras, photographic lenses, micrometers, spectroscopes, measuring machines, radio equipment, microscopes and numerous peripherals - totals 457, although less than half of these remain in the collection, the rest having been sold because of antique value, or written off due to obsolescence, excessive damage or loss (by borrowers), or simple inadequacy. Some indeed, have met dramatic ends: one was abandoned in Russia after the aborted eclipse expedition of 1914, and another was destroyed during the Blitz in 1941.

The term 'instrument' can of course be applied to any piece of equipment; even eyepieces have been presented, but without doubt the largest instrument to be acquired was the 9-inch folded refractor with a 10-inch plane (No.96), custom-built by Cooke for William Strachan in the 1920s and presented to the Association by A.M. Newbegin in 1947. But even this would have been dwarfed by the 15-inch Grubb refractor (now at Alston Hall, Preston) bequeathed by Wilfred Hall in 1953. A condition of Hall's bequest, however, was that an observatory should be built to contain it, and as this was beyond the means of the Association the bequest passed to the Royal Astronomical Society.

The collection continues to change, and more than 50 items have been added since the appointment of the present Curator in 1991.