Shuckburgh telescope

Lore & Background

The telescope was ordered by Sir George Shuckburgh from Jesse Ramsden in 1781 and delivered ten years later for his observatory at Shuckburgh Hall in Warwickshire. Shuckburgh also ordered a clock from John Arnold & Son to use with the telescope. The telescope was transferred to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in 1811 and later to the London Science Museum in 1929. At Greenwich, it was for a time installed in the North Dome, though the sky view was partially obscured by the Octagon room; earlier it was installed as an alt-az mount in the South dome at Greenwich, which in 1838 is where the then-new 6.7 inch aperture Sheepshanks refractor was installed. The telescope was also known as the eastern equatorial for its location.

Reader's Guide

The Shuckburgh telescope's significance lies in its influential design and its use for notable observations despite mixed assessments of its success. It was one of the larger achromatic doublet telescopes at the time and one of the largest to have an equatorial mount. It was pictured in the Rees Cyclopedia of the early 1800s and earlier in Philosophical Transactions published in 1793. The telescope was used for the 1832 transit of Mercury, equipped with a Dollond micrometer, to measure the planet's diameter; the observer noted a dusky tinge around the planet, comparing it to pressing a coin into the Sun. Both the Shuckburgh and the western equatorial at Greenwich were used for observations of the 1835 apparition of Halley's Comet, sometimes with a micrometer microscope and the Transit and Arnold 1 and 2 clocks. Observations of Halley's comet were recorded in August, September, and October, but the comet could not be viewed after October 19 because the view was blocked by another part of the observatory building. The telescope was also used for observing occultations of stars by the Moon and the moons of Jupiter.

Did You Know?

• The telescope was ordered in 1781 but not delivered until 1791.
• It was used for the 1832 transit of Mercury with a Dollond micrometer.
• Observations of Halley's Comet in 1835 were blocked after October 19 by the observatory building.