The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, B.C.Plaskett, J. S. (John Stanley)
History
The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, B.C.
Plaskett, J. S. (John Stanley)
Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
The Provincial Government had generously agreed to give $10,000 for the
purchase of a site and to build a road to the summit. This undertaking
was fully met and the road, splendidly located and constructed and
costing over $25,000, was completed in the spring of 1915. Contracts
for the construction of the telescope pier and the circular steel
walls of the building were awarded to a local firm and this work
was completed in 1916. The revolving dome with accessories for the
operation of the telescope was made by the Warner & Swasey Co., the
builders of the telescope mounting, and was completed and erected in
1916, thus making the building ready for the telescope.
The design of the mounting was very carefully gone into by the Warner
& Swasey Co. in collaboration with the writer and was completed in the
autumn of 1914. Construction was at once begun and the mounting was
completed and temporarily erected at Cleveland in May 1916. It was then
shipped to Victoria and permanently erected in its building by November
1916.
The order for the large disc for the 72-inch mirror and for an
auxiliary flat of 55 inches diameter for testing the 72-inch was given
to the St. Gobain Glass Works of Paris by the Jno. A. Brashear Co.
as soon as the contract was awarded. The 72-inch disc was cast and
annealed by June 1914 and was fortunately shipped at once without
waiting for the 55-inch disc. It left Antwerp only about a week before
war was declared and it was only by this small margin that Canada now
has a 72-inch telescope. Grinding and polishing were at once begun
but the lack of the large flat and other difficulties delayed the
completion and it was not until April 1918, about a year and a half
after the completion of the mounting, that the figuring was finally
completed and the telescope ready for work. Nevertheless, for an
undertaking of such magnitude the work was completed in record time,
four and a half years after the awarding of the contracts.
SECTION 2.--THE BUILDING AND DOME
The Observatory Building
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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