[David Strange]

It’s looking increasingly likely that this is the missing Mond lens. It’s aperture is 17 cm and the focal  length seems to be around 120cm when bringing a ceiling light into focus on a screen, which agrees with the original specification in NLO Handbook 1935. We have also found some numbers inscribed into the rim of the lens carrier but cannot read them clearly enough yet. The lens also fits comfortably into the front of the telescope tube. It does look like a petzval lens as you suggest Dennis, so my only query is was the original lens a petzval? We also believe that the accompanying guidescope is also original to the Mond. We believe it is the bottom section of a longer instrument which you see in the above photograph. I thought it just had its lens missing but now believe another longer brass tube holding the objective lens was located over the end of this short one.

[David Strange]

Denis, we have a meeting on Friday to discuss and plan the re-instatement of the Mond telescope. We shall do a comparison of lenses then. We have been busy with a general refurbishment of the NLO entrance foyer, and the Mond is the next item on our to do list. I’ve just found this Jim Lockyer lantern slide of the Mond as new, taken at the Cooke works circa 1931. Interesting that Robert Mond paid £2171-5-9 for it which is £161,457 in today’s money.

[David Strange]

Hi Denis, Do you know who was the author of this blog post? There is much useful information here and |I would like to credit him/her, but it seems anonymous as far as I can tell.

https://srmmt.blogspot.com/2005/01/sir-robert-mond-and-history-of-norman.html   

Thanks David

[David Strange]

I could find no manufacturer’s engraving or any stamp or symbol to say who made it. David

[David Strange]

Denis, that’s fantastic news if it’s true! Really opportune as well, as we are now starting to plan for the Mond’s installation.

If it helps, here is a picture of the other end of the 7″ lens tube. Thanks very much for that information. David

[David Strange]

I gave a recent talk to the NLO History Group a few weeks ago showing a few scanned images from this lantern slide collection which gives an idea of what this project will involve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O895siyOq7E&t=276s

David

[David Strange]

Hello Denis,

I shall certainly suggest them as part of the project. We have recently started a refurbishment of the NLO foyer and the next project is to set up the Mond as a special exhibit. Thanks for those nice photos!

David

[David Strange]

Here’s my image of V476 Cyg. One hour’s exposure and no expanding shell visible!

David

[David Strange]

Wow! Thanks for trying!

David 🙂

[David Strange]

Thanks very much Robin for your thinking outside the box! That never occurred to me!

Cheers

David

[David Strange]

Caught this spectrum of SN2021hpr last night. It’s a 20 x120s stack with a Star Analyser 100, C9 and ASI183MM, but only problem was my calibration using the bright A0V star Izar looked oversaturated and I couldn’t get a useful calibration for one point alignment. Does the SN spectrum look about right?

David

[David Strange]

Yes, I heard it this afternoon in Sidmouth. Thought it was gunfire practice off Portland. Apparently heard as far away as Normandy. David

[David Strange]

I think Norman Lockyer’s son Jim was more of a photographer than himself. The NLO were recently given his 1898 Kodak portrait camera (bellows camera with roll film) which he used to take meticulous photos all mounted and dated in his albums. We now have six or seven of these which are a magnificent record of the social life of an astronomer of the day! There is a whole album devoted to the 1927 NLO Solar Eclipse trip to Richmond, Yorkshire  where they set up their campsite at the Oliver Duckett mound:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1927MNRAS..87..668L

David

[David Strange]

Great work Tracey! You need one of these! The Sky at Night team brought along a portable electron microscope to the Norman Lockyer Observatory a few years ago and found a micrometeorite on our roof. A bit smaller than yours I guess, about 20 micron in size!

David

[David Strange]

Maybe at the Kings Observatory in Richmond Park? I know they had some magnetic huts there and were involved in the testing of scientific instruments.

David

[David Strange]

Thanks Richard, I can see that now! I think I misread the scale of the drawing!

David

[David Strange]

Probably the best person to contact would be Nic Bonne who runs the Tactile Universe https://tactileuniverse.org/  Nic is a  visually impaired professional astronomer who has made a series of 3D printed tactile objects of planets, moons, galaxies etc. Last year at the NLO we ran a one day Tactile Astronomy Day for our local charity Moor Vision https://www.moorvision.org/  We were able to offer NASA braille constellation charts, lunar craters made out of plaster of paris, planets on a string to show scale of solar system and letting students feel a telescope, lens and eyepiece. It was as a rewarding experience for those helping as it was for the visually impaired.

David

[David Strange]

Caught it through clouds here in East Devon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWW3F5nAho&feature=youtu.be

David

[David Strange]

I caught it between 22:01h -22:23h UT last night with a C8. Cropped 39x30s sequence here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLNgdQheto&feature=youtu.be

David

[David Strange]

I came across this Mars map that pre-dates Schiaparelli’s from Patrick Moore’s Guide to Mars 1956. Lockyer Land became Hellas, and the Kaiser Sea became Syrtis Major.

David

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