We learn from the Melbourne Argus of 23rd February 1863 that the new observatory, for which a grant of £4,500 was recently voted by the Colonial Legislature, is nearly completed, and the colonists are proud of it, as they may be.
The Transit instrument will be second only to those at
Greenwich and Capetown; and Airy’s zenith sector is at present in constant use
in connection with the survey of the colony, and the determination of the
boundary between Victoria and South Australia.
It has been determined to provide this observatory with a
telescope of much greater optical power than any previously used in the
southern hemisphere, to be employed chiefly in observations of nebulae; and the
advice of the Royal Society was desired as to the best instrument to be used.
We believe that it has been decided that a reflector as
large as and similar to Lord Rosse’s to be constructed in this country, should
be employed. Should this of course, which really seems a rather hazardous one
be adopted, we trust that the effects of a long voyage, and extremes of
temperature, and loss of figure and polish, may all be avoided, and that the
colony may reap all the laurels it deserves.
The telescope would be the Great Melbourne Reflector which
was built by the Grub Telescope Company in Ireland then shipped in sections to
Australia where it was installed in the Melbourne observatory in 1869 .
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
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