克拉克望远镜

克拉克的

The objective lens and finder telescope were built by the firm of Alvan Clark and Sons. The Clark Company began making lenses and building telescopes in 1846 in Cambridge, Mass. 克拉克的 were master craftsmen in grinding and polishing lenses for refracting telescopes and made many of the finest lenses ever ground in the United States. The equatorial mount and tube was the first telescope mount made by Warner and Swasey, 克利夫兰的一家机床公司, 俄亥俄州. The mount proved not to be sufficiently sturdy and was replaced in 1916 by Warner and Swasey’s larger and heavier second edition telescope mount. The original mount now resides in the American Museum of History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

望远镜

Beloit College utilized the telescope until 1965, when they built a new observatory with a larger telescope. In 1967 the telescope was acquired From Beloit College by Dave Garroway, a television personality best known for being the original host of the Today Show on NBC. He moved the telescope to his home in Scituate, MA and installed it in a 16 foot dome. 1971年. Garroway moved to California and chose not to take the telescope with him. He decided to sell the telescope and dome and placed an advertisement in the magazine Sky & 望远镜. 8月, 1971 Professor Cupillari saw the advertisement, and with the approval of then President Harry K. 小米勒. 以及玛格丽塔·B的支持. Chamberlin, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, he wrote a letter of inquiry to Mr. Garroway. A series of letters and telephone calls followed. Numerous individuals and organizations, 包括史密森学会, indicated an interest in acquiring the telescope and dome. The Smithsonian Institution wanted to buy it to reunite the lens and finder telescope with the original Warner and Swasey mount. 最终,先生. Garroway, assured that 重点大学 would make the telescope available to students of all ages and the general public, rejected all other offers and sold his ‘baby’ to 重点大学. 1971年秋天, the dome and telescope were dismantled and transported to 重点大学 and placed in storage.

克拉克透镜和望远镜

阿尔文·克拉克和他的儿子们, 阿尔文·格雷厄姆和乔治, were perfectionists in grinding and polishing their lenses. The two Alvans ground the lenses manually and tested them in a long tunnel adjacent to their factory. 无限小心, they did the final polishing and corrections with optical rouge on their bare thumbs. George, a mechanical expert, built the controls.

In 1996 the Clark lens and the 3 ½ inch finder telescope, 也是克拉克家做的, were installed on a new equatorial mount with a modern electronic drive system. 华纳 & Swasey mount was worn out and could no longer be repaired. The current mount was designed and fabricated by D & 位于宾夕法尼亚州曼海姆的G光学公司.

Keystone的9.5英寸克拉克镜头, 从一到十打分, 一个是完美的, 得分大概是2分. This rating is better than lenses from many other makers and even better than some other Clark lenses. Several of the best known telescopes made by the Clark family include the 26 inch at the U.S. 海军天文台, the 36 inch at the Lick Observatory in Santa Cruz, CA, and the 40 inch at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI, 有史以来最大的折射透镜. Closer to home, Bucknell University has a Clark telescope with a 10 inch lens.

望远镜支架

The main support pedestal is nearly 9 ½ feet high and weighs 2000 pounds. 12英尺长的管子, 赤道的头, 计数器的重量, and attachments have a combined weight of 500 pounds, and yet the telescope can be moved easily with a four-pound effort when properly balanced. The dome, 16 feet in diameter, rotates a full 360 degrees. The automatic tracking system of the telescope is driven by a small electric motor that is connected to a series of gears that rotate the telescope.

放大

The Clark telescope will effectively magnify objects from 70X to 700X. Because of the limiting effects of Earth’s atmosphere, 然而, it is most often used at magnifying powers of 100X to 300X. The Clark telescope gives excellent views of the moon and planets Mercury, 金星, 火星, 木星, 土星, 和天王星.

The Clark refracting telescope has a long and illustrious history, being one of more than six hundred telescopes made by the Clarks, ranging in size from three inches to the Yerkes forty inch. It continues to show vivid and wondrous views of the skies to the students and people of Northeast Pennsylvania.