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Description: | View of the 40ft. Telescope built in the garden of Observatory House by Sir William Herschel who had moved there in 1786 from Datchet. In the garden of the house he constructed two telescopes, one of 20ft. In 1786 and a much larger one at 40ft in 1789.
His telescope also showed 75 million more stars than could be seen before. While living in Slough he discovered 4 moons - 2 orbiting Uranus, and 2 orbiting Saturn.
The tube was 39ft. 4in long and the mirror diameter was 49.5 ins. and weighed 2118 lbs. Scaffolding supported the tube and an arrangement of pulleys allowed the top of the tube and an observer on an attached platform to be raised or lowered. There was also a speaking tube that enabled a mechanic to adjust the telescope to suit the observer.
Observatory House was occupied by the Herschel family descendants until 1957 and in 1963 the house was demolished. The Royal Observatory, the British Museum and the United States of America, each have some of the telescopes and astronomical equipment. | Format: | image/jpeg | License: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_sitetext%2ehtm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&cms_con_core_subtype%3acms_con_text_what=copyright&%3acms_sys_group=%22sopse%22 | Rights holder: | Slough Library | Subjects: | Observatory House ; Ivy House ; Grove House Telescopes ; Astronomy ; Houses ; | Temporal: | start=1789-01-01; end=1839-01-01; | Source: | Sense of place SE | Creator: | Copy by Reg Harrison | Identifier: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | image/jpeg | Go to resource |
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