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Hello Andrea, I forwarded your post about the Steinheil refractor to Bart Fried of The Antique Telescope Society. I suggest you contact him for further advice. His reply is :
Re: steinheil refractor.
Bart Fried
12/10/22 23:44
1
It does, but there’s no tripod? Also, the wood block is a home-made adapter to use it on an alt-azimuth mount. But it’s a wood tube and it was almost certainly in a cradle of some sort. If I were that fellow, I’d offer 1500 Euros and see what happens.Bart
Sic itur ad astra!
On Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 4:13 PM denis buczynski
Bart
FYI this post came up on the BAA forum, it looks a nice example of it
type.https://britastro.org/forums/topic/antique-steinheil-muenchen-refractor
Hi John, It is good to know that someone in the local area (you) are interested in this famous old instrument. What can be done I wonder. If a contact with the company that now ownes Closehouse Estate could be made to see if they would be willing to have the telescope removed would be the first step. Does anyone know contact details for this company?
I wrote to two academics in the North East who may have had some association with the observtaory and telescope.
Dr Anne Archibold at Newcastle University Astronomy Dept, who has not replied as yet.
Dr Jurgen Schmoll at Durham University who did reply, copied below:Dear Denis,
thank you for your nice email. I am afraid I am not in possession of the 24″ telescope, but of a re-built, unfinished 17″ telescope of the same pedigree.Reverend Espin of Tow Law had initially a 17″ f/8 Newtonian in his private observatory. Later he upgraded to 24″ (shorter tube, maybe f/5 but I am not sure) on the same mount. The 17″ fell into disrepair.
The 24″ was refurbished I think in the 1990s by the late David Sinden, ex chief-optician of Grubb Parsons in Newcastle. He rebuilt the tube (change from tube to truss) and made an excellent job. This telescope has been set up at Close House and used by Newcastle Uni. Sadly Newcastle closed its Physics/Astronomy section, and Close House was taken over in ownership with the new owners not being interested in astronomy. This is how it all fell apart.
The 17″ mirror was rescued by Alan Heslop and Gordon Percival, both Grubb-Parsons until it shut. I remember both later became teachers. They reground the mirror from f/8 to f/4 and built a new telescope around it, which was never finished. When Alan Heslop passed away end of 2012, his sun asked me to move the telescope away to rescue it. Since then it is in storage. I set it up once, using a crane in my observatory as it is a heavy machine at about 1/2 ton total weight. Currently I have it half-built in my new observatory, after moving house. The plan is to find a new home for it, but there is much to do and some measures are costly – recoating the mirror alone about £500. The ancient motors are to be replaced by contemporary dual axis control e.g. by AWR electronics, but this is about £2000. All money I do not have, and I will have to team up with someone else or an interested astronomical society.
There was also a 12″ Schmidt telescope at Close House. I have the optics of this one, as the mechanics did not survive. Also the optics is damaged, the corrector plate having a large chip on the edge. So probably a display item in a Grubb Parsons exhibit, as there is a science Paper about it authored by David Brown himself, an important figure within Grubb Parsons.
Feel free to contact me again. We may also have a chat on Skype or phone if you like.
So how to proceed from here. Perhaps an online working group to discuss what can be done to rescue this telescope would be a start. I live in the North East of Scotland 40 miles north of Inverness, so any participation on the ground by myself would be impractical. A willing person in the Newcastle area would be ideal. Does anyone know annyone in the Newcastle Astronomical Society who might help?
Denis Buczynski
Hi Trevor,
Thanks for your interest. I can see why you are as interested in knowing the current situation regarding the telescope. I have written to member of the Astronomy group at Newcastle University, Dr Anne Archbold, to see if she can shed any light on the matter. Here is a copy of my letter:
Hello Dr Archibold,
I hope you can help with this enquiry. I am an amateur astronomer and a member of the British Astronomical Association since 1979. At present I live 40 miles north of Inverness. I have had a particular interest in the telescopes that were used by pioneers of observational astronomy in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The reason I write to you is to ask if you can shed any light on the current situation regarding the telescope used by The Rev.T.E .Espin (a founder member of the BAA and a recipient of the Jackson-Gwilt medal of the Royal Astronomical Society). He lived and worked at Tow Law in County Durham.This telescope has historical significance and was donated to Newcastle University in the 1990’s by David Sinden (who was chief optician at Grubb-Parsons and worked on the construction of the Issac Newton telescope and the Anglo Australian telescope). It was situated at the University Observatory site at Closehouse Estate west of Newcastle along side two other more modern telescopes that were owned and operated by Newcatle University. The University sold off the site and removed the two modern telescopes (still in storage at the University?).However I believe the 19th century Espin 24 inch Calver reflector was left in situ and may still be there, abandoned. Can you shed any light on the current situation regarding this telescope. I realise that this may be outside you sphere of interest and certainly the move away form Closehouse was before you time at Newcastle University, but I hope the subject and its historical aspect may interest you enough to make some enquiries about the telescope. I attach two links
1) a utube video made in 2021 showing the abandoned observatory
2) a link to the Society for the History of Astronomy webpage for this telescope whcih gives the historical background.
I hope you can find time to look at these and respond
Best wishes
Denis Buczynskihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_FRY1XAmSk
https://shasurvey.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/espin-observatory.pdf
Hi Alan (dont know your surname as you have not displayed it), I have one of Paul’s paintings, the one of Saturn and its ring system hanging on my wall. Image attached. Also there are many of Paul’s sketches of comets in the BAA Comet Archive, such as these of comet Kobayashi-Berger-Milon at https://britastro.org/cometobs/1975n1/thumbnails.html
Denis Buczynski
The link in the previous post seems to need the .pdf at the end of the link to be included for it to work.
https://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Return_to_Starlight_Nights-eBook_(2).pdfHello all,
Anyone who is an aficionado of Leslie Peltier and his life story may be interested to read the material at this AAVSO link:
https://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/Return_to_Starlight_Nights-eBook_(2).pdfDenis Buczynski (also an aficionado)
Attachments:
Hi Lyn
Attached is an rather low resolution image of this sunspot group taken this afternoon 20220418 at Tarbatness.
Best wishes
DenisAttachments:
Hi David and Daryl,
Thanks for the time effort you have put in to looking for information about Kellaway on my behalf. I do know of some of the information you write about, especially the Obituary of him in the JBAA. I will try the authors of the book that you mention about West Coker,that may provide me with the photographs of Kellaway, his observatory(ies) and his telescopes that I would like to obtain. I know RLW (Reggie Waterfield) well but never heard him speak of Kellaway. Once again many thanks.
Denis BuczynskiDon’t thow it away just offer it for sale to members, highest bid wins. Even as a curiosity it worth more than putting it in the bin.
Richard McKim has also suggested that we publish an obituary in the JBAA. I have spoken with Rob’s wife today and she is hopeful that an obituary of Rob will appear in a future JBAA. I am willing to write this.
Denis
Hi David, I do not know who wrote that article. I see from the end postscript that he/she had a private communication with Glyn who must have given him details after the removal of the Mond Astrograph from NLO. I will ask Glyn’s wife, Christine, if she knows who wrote it. I remember that there was a book about the history of Sir Robert Mond amongst the material I sent down to NLO with the Mond Astrograph and the measuring machines and some documents that Glyn had assembled. Did you manage to compare the 7 inch Zeiss lens that Gyln had on the Mond Astrograph and the mystery 7 inch you found? Was the focal length of the mystery 7 inch determined?
It would be worthwhile measuring the focal length , the original Mond Zeiss 7 inch was f/7. Also have a look at the 7 inch Zeiss triplet lens that we sent back to NLO (the one Harold Ridley passed on to Glyn) and see if they are similar.
The main fact to find out is whether the optical design of the 7 inch you have found is a Petzval doublet or a Zeiss triplet(telephoto) . The original Zeiss triplet on the Mond was a triplet of f/7. Cooke mounted the Zeiss lenses onto the Mond astrograph for Robert Mond.I would look for some markings on the lens cell/housing which may show it to be a Zeiss.
Denis
Write to The Antique Telescope Forum, there ar lots of experts involved in that group who will be able to give you the information you need.
Hi David,
The large lens (7 inch) may well be the original 7 inch f/7 Zeiss astrograph lens that was missing from the Mond when Glyn Marsh and I rescued the instrument from NLO. The 7 inch lens was missing and was not amongst the other astrographic lenses we collected and are now back at NLO with the Cooke/Mond Astrographis mount. The 7 inch that you now have was one that Harold Ridley passed on to Glyn and did not come originally from the NLO.The lens design of the lens you ahve just found may be that of Petzval Doublet. The small 3 inch refractor looks like a guide telescope with a sliding plate that carries the eyepeice and diagaonal across the FOV to allow the observer to selected a guide star. I would guess that both instrument s were part of the original Mond Astrograph or from another of the large telescopes there at NLO. I have taken the liberty of posting your message and images on the Antique Telescope Forum to see if anyone ther can more positivley identify these instruments. Denis Buczynski
Hi Alex,
Is the shadow track well established. I see that I will be outside the track at Tarbatness. Is it still worth while me observing this event?
Denis
Tarbatness observing statistics 2021 observations on nights when ccd comet astrometry and photometry was undertaken; Jan 19, Feb16,Mar12,Apr10,May4,Aug7,Sept10,Oct12,Nov9,Dec17. Total=116 nights This excludes any nights from mid May until mid August when observing is not possible at this lattitude 58d N due to all night twilight. Observations of other objects Novae, Supernovae, and other transients were made on nights when CCD comet imaging was taking place.Some deep sky ojects were imaged in colour. In the winter skies displays of Aurora were recorded. In the Summer skies displays of NLC were recorded. Meteor count on two cameras 12mm camera 2328, 3.8mmcamera 1844 Cameras are turned off from mid May to mid August due to all night twilight. All in all it was decentish observing year here at Tarbatness, I am not sure I could have done more.
