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Sheepshanks equatorial
Telescope installed at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, United Kingdom / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Sheepshanks Equatorial Telescope was a 6.7-inch (170 mm) aperture refracting telescope installed in 1838 at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.[1] The telescope was donated to the observatory by the astronomer Richard Sheepshanks. The telescope had a doublet objective lens made by Cauchoix of Paris.[2] Originally it was mounted on a clockwork driven equatorial mounting by the Grubb Telescope Company on a stone pillar.[3][4]
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From 1835 to 1963 it was mounted in Greenwich Observatory's Sheepshanks Dome (located between the later Great Equatorial Building and the Prime Meridian); from 1963 to 1982 it was mounted in the Altazimuth Pavilion.[3] In the early 1980s it was placed in storage.[3]
The focal length of the telescope has been quoted as 6 feet 2+1⁄2 inches (1.892 meters) in one source,[3] but according to another it is 8 feet 2 inches (2.49 meters).[5] The telescope tube was made of wood.[6]
An 1840 report from the Observatory noted of the new Sheepshanks telescope:[7]
The power and general goodness of this telescope make it a most welcome addition to the instruments of the observatory
Still in service over half a century later, an 1896 report by W. H. M. Christie had this to say about the Sheepshanks at that time:[5]
Its definition is good: A small quantity of colour from the secondary spectrum, and a diffusion of light from brilliant objects, being the principal defects.
At one time the Sheepshanks refractor was the largest aperture telescope at Greenwich.[8] One of the instruments for the telescope was a wire micrometer.[5]