POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Photograph of Great Melbourne Equitorial telescope

Object No. P3549-5

TheGreat Melbourne telescope was constructed by the instrument maker Howard Gruss and arrived in Melbourne in November, 1868. However it was not until July 1869 that it was finally operational in the purpose built protective building seen in this picture. While some work was done with an attached spectroscope there were concerns initial observations were limited by the fact the funds to construct the telescope had not extended to include photogrpahic apparatus. There were also problems with the large mirror first used with the telescope which appeared to suffer from tarnishing and required repolishing. This being a very delicate operation, Mr. Le Seuer Robert Ellory who were supervising the operation, had to wait for a second mirror before the definition improved. The roof of the building seen in the image had a peculiar construction which unfortunately made it hard to exclude dust. In addition the rolling gear used to open the roof the telescope was somewhat defective at first. The small room in front of the tlescope appears to be the photographic room used to store and expose the glass plates used in the camera attachment. This important piece of scientific history was moved from Melbourne to the observatory at Mt Stromlo and unfortunately was destroyed in the 2003 bush fires. Geoff Barker, Curatorial, March 2012