Here is a list of the largest optical refracting telescopes sorted by lens diameter and focal length.
The largest practical functioning refracting telescope is the Yerkes Observatory 40 inch (102 cm) refractor, used for astronomical and scientific observation for over a century.
Most are classical Great refractors, although some of the largest refractors include a 21st century Solar telescope and, and the largest lens in refractor telescope, the short-lived Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900. It used a 78-inch (200 cm) Focault siderostat for aiming light into the Image-forming optical system part of the telescope, with a 125 cm diameter lens. Larger lenses have been used in later catadioptric telescopes which mix refractors and reflectors in the image-forming part of the telescope.
As with reflecting telescopes, there was an ongoing struggle to balance cost with size, quality, and usefulness.
| Name/Observatory | Location at Debut |
Modern Location Name or Fate | Lens diameter | Focal length | Built | Comments | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Paris Exhibition Telescope of 1900 | Paris 1900 Exposition | Dismantled 1900 | 125 cm (49.21") | 57 m | 1900 | Fixed lens, total failure, scrapped. Aimed via a 2m reflecting siderostat |  |
| Yerkes Observatory[1] | Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA | - | 102 cm (40″) | 19.4 m (62′) | 1897 | Largest in current operation[2]. |  |
| Swedish Solar Telescope, ORM |
La Palma, Spain |
- | 100 cm (39.37") | 15 m | 2002 | Single element non-achromatic objective[3] combined with reflective Adaptive optics. |  |
| James Lick telescope Lick Observatory |
Mount Hamilton, California, USA | - | 91 cm (36″) | 17.6 m | 1888 |  |
|
| Grande Lunette Paris Observatory |
Meudon, France | - | 83 cm + 62 cm (32.67" + 24.40") | 16.2 m | 1891 | Double telescope | |
| Potsdam Große Refraktor Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam |
Potsdam, Deutsches Kaiserreich | Potsdam, Germany | 80 cm + 50 cm (31.5"+29.5") | 12.0 m | 1899 | Double telescope |  |
| William Thaw Telescope Allegheny Observatory |
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA | - | 76 cm (30″) | 14.1 m | 1914 | Brashear made, photographic [4] |  |
| Pulkovo observatory | Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | Destroyed | 76 cm (30″) | 1885 | Destroyed during WWII, only lens (made by Alvan Clark & Sons) survives. |  |
|
| Grand Lunette Nice Observatory |
Nice, France | since 1988 Côte d'Azur Observatory | 76 cm (30″) [5] | 17.9 m | 1886 | aka Lunette Biscoffscheim |  |
| 28-inch Grubb Refractor Royal Greenwich Observatory |
Greenwich, London, Great Britain | - | 71 cm (28″) | 8.5 m | 1894 | ||
| Grosse Refractor Vienna Observatory |
Vienna, Austrian Empire | Vienna, Austria | 69 cm (26 in) | 10.5 m | 1880 | Largest refractor in 1880 [6] |  |
| Great Treptow Refractor Treptow Observatory |
Berlin, Germany | - | 68 cm (26.77") | 21 m | 1896 | renamed Archenhold Observatory 1946 |  |
| McCormick Observatory | Charlottesville, Virginia, USA | - | 67 cm (26.37") | 9.9 m | 1883 |  |
|
| U.S. Naval Observatory | Washington, DC, USA | - | 66 cm (26") | 9.9 m | 1873 | ||
| Royal Greenwich Observatory | Herstmonceux, Great Britain | - | 66 cm (26") | 6.8 m | 1896 | ||
| Yale-Columbia Refractor Yale Southern Station |
Johannesburg, Union of South Africa | Relocated 1952 | 66 cm (26") | 10.8 m | 1925-1952 | Yale-Columbia Refractor moved to Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1952, same telescope as following entry | |
| Mount Stromlo Observatory | Mount Stromlo, Australia | Destroyed 2003 | 66 cm (26") | 10.8 m | 1952 | Yale-Columbia Refractor - Previously located in South Africa. Relocated to Australia in 1952. Destroyed by bush fire on January 18, 2003[7]. | |
| Pulkovo observatory | Saint Petersburg, Russia | - | 65 cm (26″) | 10.413 m | 1930s | In Pulkovo since 1954. | |
| Llano del Hato National Astronomical Observatory | Llano del Hato, Venezuela | - | 65 cm (26 in) | 10.5 m | 1976 | ||
| Belgrade Observatory [8] | Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia | Belgrade, Serbia | 65 cm (26 in) | 10.55 m | Zeiss made lens, same as at Berlin Observatory | ||
| Hida Observatory | Gifu, Japan | - | 65 cm (26 in) | 10.50 m | 1972 | Largest refractor of the East | |
| Berlin-Babelsberg Observatory Berliner Sternwarte Babelsberg |
Berlin, Germany | 65 cm (26 in) | 10.12 m (33 ft) | 1914 | Berlin Observatory just moved to Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1913; Zeiss lens |  |
|
| Lowell Observatory | Arizona, USA | - | 61 cm (24″) | 6.7 m (22.6 ft) | 1894 | Alvan Clark & Sons telescope |  |
| Sproul Observatory | Pennsylvania, USA | - | 61 cm (24″) | 11.0 m (36 ft) | 1911 | ||
| Craig telescope | Wandsworth Common, London | Dismantled 1857 | 61 cm (24″) | 1852 | Problem with lens figuring [9] | ||
| Radcliffe Double Refractor University of London Observatory |
Oxford, UK | - | 60/45 cm (23.6″/18") | 7.0 m | 1901 | Obtained from the Radcliffe Observatory and installed in 1938 | |
| Zeiss Double Refractor Bosscha Observatory |
Bandung, Indonesia | - | 60 cm (23.6″) | 10.7 m | 1928 |  |
|
| Der Große Refraktor (Great Refractor) Hamburg Observatory |
Bergedorf, Germany | - | 60 cm (23.6″) | 9 m | 1911 |  |
|
| Halstead Observatory | Princeton, USA | - | 58.4 cm (23″) | 9.8 m (32 ft) | 1881 | ||
| Chamberlin Observatory | Colorado, USA | - | 50 cm (20″) | 8.5m (28 ft) | 1891 | ||
| Van Vleck Observatory | Connecticut, USA | - | 50 cm (20″) | 8.4m (27.5 ft) | 1922 | ||
| Chabot Observatory | Oakland, California, USA (2000) | 50 cm (20″) | 8.5m (28 ft) | 1914 | "Rachael" Warner & Swazey Company (Optics John A Brashear Company) Refurb in 2000 and moved to present location. |  |
|
| Imperial Observatory | Straßburg, German Empire | Strasbourg, France | 48.5 cm (19.1″) | 7 m (23 ft) | 1880 [10] | ||
| 18½-in Dearborn Observatory Refractor | Chicago, USA | - | 47 cm (18.5″) | 1862 | |||
| Wilder Observatory | Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA | - | 46 cm (18″) | (25 ft) | 1903 | by Alvin Clark |  |
| Flower Observatory | Philadelphia, USA | - | 46 cm (18″) | 6.7 m (22.6 ft) | 1896 | ||
| Royal Observatory | Cape Colony, British Empire | South Africa | 46 cm (18″) | 6.7 m (22.6 ft) | 1897 | [11] | |
| Harvard Great Refractor Harvard College Observatory [12] |
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | - | 38 cm (15″) | 1847 | largest telescope in America for 20 years [13] |  |
|
| Bamberg Refractor Urania Observatory (Berlin) |
Berlin-Moabit, Prussia | Berlin, Germany | 31.4 cm (12.36") | 5 m | 1889 | then biggest in Prussia, moved to Insulaner Wilhelm-Foerster Observatory in 1963 [14] | |
| Urania Sternwarte (Zurich) | Zurich, Switzerland | - | 30 cm (12″) | 5.05 m | 1907 | by Fraunhofer and Zeiss |  |
| University of Illinois Observatory | Urbana, Illinois | - | 30 cm (12″) | 1896 | by John Brashear |  |
|
| Fraunhofer-Refraktor Berlin Observatory |
Berlin-Kreuzberg, Deutsches Kaiserreich | Moved 1913 to Munich, Germany | 24 cm (9.6″) | 4 m (13.4′) | 1835 | Used to discover Neptune; in Deutsches Museum, München since 1913[15] |  |
| Great Dorpat Refractor (Fraunhofer) Dorpat/Tartu Observatory |
Dorpat, Governorate of Estonia | Tartu, Estonia | 24 cm (9.6″) | 4 m (13.4′) | 1824 | "..the first modern, achromatic, refracting telescope." [16] [17] |  |
See also
- List of largest optical reflecting telescopes
- List of largest optical telescopes in the 20th century
References
- ^ http://astro.uchicago.edu/vtour/40inch/
- ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/653042/Yerkes-Observatory
- ^ solarphysics.kva.se The Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope "By using a lens of a single glass, excellent image quality is obtained through very narrow filters that isolate a single wavelength or color."
- ^ http://www.flamsteed.info/fasother6_files/page0001.htm
- ^ British university observatories, 1772-1939 By Roger Hutchins;page 252
- ^ http://www.flamsteed.info/fasother6_files/page0006.htm
- ^ Mount Stromlo Observatory brochure, page 12, The 26” Yale-Columbia Refractor, Australian National University, 2004, accessed 19 April 2008
- ^ http://www.aob.bg.ac.yu/instruments/index.html#Section1
- ^ http://www.craig-telescope.co.uk/
- ^ http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/scientific-american/Scientific-American-Reference-Book/The-Large-Refractors-Of-The-World.html
- ^ Scientific American Reference Book. A Manual for the Office, Household and Shop Author Albert A. Hopkins, A. Russell Bond Publisher Munn & Company Year 1905 Copyright 1904, Munn & Company
- ^ http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco/grref.html
- ^ http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations//groundup/lesson/scopes/harvard/index.php
- ^ http://www.wfs.be.schule.de/pages/hist/Bamberge.html
- ^ http://bdaugherty.tripod.com/astronomy/berlin.html#GALLE
- ^ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1967AmJPh..35..344W Fraunhofer and the Great Dorpat Refractor, Waaland, J. Robert, American Journal of Physics, Volume 35, Issue 4, pp. 344-350 (1967)
- ^ http://www.obs.ee/obs/instrumendid/fr.htm
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