Cooke telescope leads to life long interest in astronomy

 

On April 15^th 1865 William Bolger Gibbs (1836-1925) of Peckham in London purchased a Cooke 4 inch educational telescope. He would not make any great discoveries but this small telescope would give him a life long interest in astronomy.

The following year he ordered an equatorial mounting from Cookes for a larger telescope. William Gibbs then obtained a 5.5 inch telescope in a wooden observatory, but I don’t know if it was a Cooke, but clearly he ordered the mount for the 5.5 inch telescope . He would use this telescope until he was 87 years old.

He was great friends with James Buckingham of Walworth in London who owned a 21.25 inch refractor by Wray the largest in the world until 1870 when Cookes built the 25 inch Newall refractor.