On double-star observations

✍ Scribed by Dr. W. Doberck

• Book ID: 102753903
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1878
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 605 KB
• Volume: 92
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-6337
• DOI: 10.1002/asna.18780920302

✦ Synopsis

When in the middle of December 1815 the object glass was refixed in the large telescope I at once availed myself of the opportunity to make a series of doublestar observations, although the apparatus first lately have come into definitive working order. -The observatory is situated near a river, very low, among surrounding heights, together with the dwelling house. The equatoreal was erected 1834 on a fundament of limestone. Both tube and mounting were made of cast-iron, so t,liat this is one of the first thus mounted instruments. It is exceedingly heavy (over 50 Cwt.), which secures steadiness of the foundation, but renders its working slow and difficult in proportion. The whole instrument, even the clockwork, is exposed under the open sky to the vicissitudes of the rough climate, 80 unfavourable for delicate astronomical observations. It is only surrounded by a sixteen feet high wall, the stones of which are now weatherbeaten and crumbling with age. This wall protects the observer from the wind, but there is great Expedition auf der Koniglichen Sternwarte bei Kiel.