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History of Astronomy Group
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Topic starter
Was reading Bobby Manoo’s report on our latest History of Astronomy group’s meeting and was particularly fascinated to read his account of one of Malcolm’s points stating that “there was a zenith telescope at the top of the Monument as well as a laboratory under the ticketing cubicle.”
I hadn’t heard about this before! I had always believed that this was The Monument to the Great Fire of London.
It piqued my interest so I decided to do a little bit of digging for more info – I do like a mystery! I found this BBC Future article which is quite an interesting read.
The article states that Monument was designed by Robert Hooke, not by Sir Christopher Wren as the plaque found at the base would suggest.
It was supposed to be a grand acknowledgement of the fire, but at the time, “what Hooke really wanted was to build a very long telescope” says Maria Zack, a mathematician at Point Loma Nazarene University, California. In the end, he decided to combine both.
Fascinating! I won't spoil the article. It's a good read.
Posted : 01/02/2018 10:53 pm
Topic starter
.. I couldn't leave it at that article... !
Here is another interesting read: It's a pdf that you can download that describes Hooke's experiments at Monument or the "Fish Street pillar", as it was referred as then. The following reference to Flamsteed's Well Telescope interested me:
..Although it did not produce the desired results as a zenith telescope (neither in the deep well at Greenwich, nor beneath the column did it prove possible to measure the tiny incremental shifts in position of the fixed stars required to provide the hoped-for proof of the Earth’s rotation around the sun).
Construction of Monument had finished in 1677 so Flamsteed's Well Telescope pre-dates it by a year?
Posted : 01/02/2018 11:48 pm
Amazing!!! Great work, Miss Marple!
Posted : 01/02/2018 11:54 pm
Great work, Christina! I was trying to download the pdf but I think you accidentally linked to the one that's on your own computer. I would have hated going down a well for telescope viewing though!
Posted : 02/02/2018 2:52 pm
Topic starter
Oops! Sorry about that. I'm unable to edit my post so have attached the pdf article instead... Hope this works.
A well telescope doesn't appeal to me either!
I'm interested to know whether there is any correlation between Flamsteed's Well Telescope and Hooke's telescopes at Gresham College and Monument? Anyone know?
Posted : 03/02/2018 12:43 pm
