Boyden Observatory is an
astronomical
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies ...
research
observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
and science education centre located in
Maselspoort, north-east of the city of
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...
in
Free State, South Africa
The Free State, known as Orange Free State until the 28th of June 1995 when its name was changed, is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Boer ...
. The observatory is managed by the Physics Department of the
University of the Free State
The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State (province), Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in ...
(UFS). The Friends of Boyden assist the observatory as a public support group, organising open evenings and protecting its public interest. Boyden also makes use of members of
ASSA
Assa may refer to: Places
* Assa (Chalcidice), a town of Chalcidice in ancient Macedonia, Greece
* Assa, Morocco, a town in Southern Morocco in the Jbel Ouarkziz
* Asa River (Kazakhstan), river in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
* Assa (river), river ...
Bloemfontein Centre, the
amateur astronomy
Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astronomers m ...
club of the city, for presenters and telescope assistants.
History
The Boyden Station of
Harvard Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United St ...
was founded in 1889 by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
at Mount Harvard near
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
, Peru. It was relocated to
Arequipa
Arequipa (; Aymara and qu, Ariqipa) is a city and capital of province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru". It is the second most populated city ...
, Peru in October 1890 (
obs.
code:
800
__NOTOC__
Year 800 ( DCCC) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was around this time that the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years, so ...
).
It was named after
Uriah A. Boyden
Uriah Atherton Boyden (February 17, 1804 – October 17, 1879) was an American civil and mechanical engineer and inventor from Foxborough, Massachusetts best known for the development of a water turbine, that later became known as the Boyden ...
, who in 1879 left in his will $238,000 to Harvard Observatory to be used for astronomical purposes. Significant work done at Arequipa include the discovery of
Phoebe, an outer moon of
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
, by
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering (February 15, 1858 – January 16, 1938) was an American astronomer. Pickering constructed and established several observatories or astronomical observation stations, notably including Percival Lowell's Flagstaff Observ ...
using photographic plates captured with the Bruce Astrograph.
In 1927, the observatory was moved to its present location in South Africa.
This was done because it was expected that Bloemfontein would be less cloudy than Arequipa, which after two years of recording proved to be true.
The site near the settlement of Mazelspoort was formally dedicated in 1933.
Its first and longtime director in South Africa was
John S. Paraskevopoulos, who held the post from 1927 to 1951.
Financial issues at Harvard almost led to the closure of Boyden in 1954, but several European countries became partners in funding and using the observatory. In 1975 Harvard, which had transferred the title to the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, announced it would withdraw its support in the following year. UFS agreed to support the facility, and it was donated to UFS in 1976.
Telescopes
* The Boyden-UFS Telescope, which is also known as the Rockefeller Reflector, is a
Cassegrain reflector
The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to th ...
.
* The Watcher Robotic Telescope is a
f/14.25 robotic telescope
A robotic telescope is an astronomical telescope and detector system that makes observations without the intervention of a human. In astronomical disciplines, a telescope qualifies as robotic if it makes those observations without being operated ...
developed by the
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...
and UFS.
The primary function of the telescope is visual spectrum observation following
Gamma-ray burst
In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milli ...
s.
* The Nishimura Telescope is a
reflector
Reflector may refer to:
Science
* Reflector, a device that causes reflection (for example, a mirror or a retroreflector)
* Reflector (photography), used to control lighting contrast
* Reflecting telescope
* Reflector (antenna), the part of an ant ...
commissioned by the
Nagoya University
, abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was the seventh Imperial University in Japan, one of the first five Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of T ...
and constructed by Nishimura Co. Ltd. in 2000.
It was not in use as of 2009.
* The Alvan Clark Telescope is a
refractor
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope d ...
named after its maker,
Alvan Clark
Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887), born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the descendant of a Cape Cod whaling family of English ancestry, was an American astronomer and telescope maker.
Biography
He started as a portrait painter and engra ...
. The telescope was first installed at
Mount Wilson Observatory
The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles.
The observat ...
in 1889. It is used for outreach purposes.
* The Metcalf Photographic Triplet Refractor is a display item.
* A coelostat (
solar telescope
A solar telescope is a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun. Solar telescopes usually detect light with wavelengths in, or not far outside, the visible spectrum. Obsolete names for Sun telescopes include heliograph and photoheliograph ...
) is used for outreach purposes.
Boyden-UFS Telescope history
Andrew Ainslie Common
Andrew Ainslie Common Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (1841–1903) was an English amateur astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astrophotography.
Biography
Common was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne on 7 August 1841. His father, Thomas ...
figured a mirror in 1885 (and another in 1890) for a Newtonian reflecting telescope (later converted to a Cassegrain), but the telescope fell into disuse and was bought by the
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United St ...
from Common's estate. The primary mirror was re-figured in 1933, and along with a new mount it was installed at Boyden.
In the mid-1960s the Hamburg engineering firm of Heidenreich and Harbeck was contracted to build a new mirror cell for the telescope to reduce the problems experienced due to the thinness of the mirror and the fact its back surface was not flat.
Shortly afterward the old Common primary mirror was replaced by a new mirror from Loomis made of low-expansion glass.
In 2001 the telescope received a major upgrade by
DFM Engineering
DFM Engineering is an American telescope and optics manufacturer founded in 1979 by Frank Melsheimer in Longmont, Colorado. DFM makes medium size Cassegrain telescopes and their associated systems including telescope optics, control systems, and ...
. This upgrade included a new control system, modifications to the mirror cell, and a new primary light shield.
From 2005 to 2009 it was part of the
Probing Lensing Anomalies Network
The Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) collaboration coordinates a network of telescopes to rapidly sample photometric measurements of the magnification of stars in the galactic bulge undergoing gravitational microlensing by intervening fo ...
.
Former telescopes
* The Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard Telescope was a
Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope
The Schmidt–Cassegrain is a catadioptric telescope that combines a Cassegrain reflector's optical path with a Schmidt corrector plate to make a compact astronomical instrument that uses simple spherical surfaces.
Invention and design
The Am ...
built in 1949 by
Perkin-Elmer
PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation focused in the business areas of diagnostics, life science research, food, environmental and industrial testing. Its capabilities include detection, imaging, inf ...
. Three organisations were involved:
Armagh Observatory
Armagh Observatory is an astronomical research institute in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are based at the observatory, studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy and Earth's climate.
In 2018, Armagh Obse ...
,
Dunsink Observatory
The Dunsink Observatory is an astronomical observatory established in 1785 in the townland of Dunsink in the outskirts of the city of Dublin, Ireland.Alexander Thom''Irish Almanac and Official Directory''7th ed., 1850 p. 258. Retrieved: 2011-02-2 ...
, and Harvard. It was installed at Bloemfontein in 1950. However, it never worked well, and after several attempts to fix it, the mirrors and lens were removed in 1981 and sent to Dunsink.
* The Bruce Astrograph was a
refracting telescope
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope d ...
built in 1893 by
Alvan Clark & Sons
Alvan Clark & Sons was an American maker of optics that became famous for crafting lenses for some of the largest refracting telescopes of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1846 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, by Alvan Clark (1804&n ...
.
After being used for many years in Arequipa, it was brought to Bloemfontein and housed in a building with a roll-off roof. With plates taken by this telescope,
Harlow Shapley
Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory (1921–1952), and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal.
Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estim ...
discovered the
Sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
and
Fornax
Fornax () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern ...
dwarf galaxies, the first of their kind.
[ In 1950, it was replaced by the Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard Telescope.]
Research and discoveries
Boyden Observatory performs professional astrophysics
Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
research using the 1.5 meter reflector. In addition to the research program, the observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
runs an active educational program for school children from all backgrounds as well as for members of the public, attracting thousands of visitors each year. In 1966, this observatory discovered four asteroids.
Facilities
Facilities include the main building where the original offices were and where the library is, the resident astronomer's house, a state-of-the-art auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
seating 100 people inside and 200 people on its roof for open-air sky shows, the main telescope buildings, smaller telescope buildings, a lecture room, store room, the ASSA
Assa may refer to: Places
* Assa (Chalcidice), a town of Chalcidice in ancient Macedonia, Greece
* Assa, Morocco, a town in Southern Morocco in the Jbel Ouarkziz
* Asa River (Kazakhstan), river in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
* Assa (river), river ...
Bloemfontein clubhouse, observation platforms, and various vantage points.
Proposed Extensions
The observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
is constantly experiencing growth in visitor numbers and the extension of its facilities. Medium term plans call for e.g. the establishment of an educational walking route for visitors to appreciate the diverse natural life in the area, a museum and science exhibition areas, upgrading of the educational telescope facilities etc. Long term plans include the construction of a digital planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
and the completion of the fully-fledged Science Hall. A digital planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
is open in the nearby city of Bloemfontein on Naval Hill (South Africa's first digital planetarium), inside the original dome of the Lamont-Hussey observatory.
See also
* Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA), formed in 1922, is a widespread body consisting of both amateur and professional astronomers. There are eight autonomous centres throughout Southern Africa.
History
The Cape Astronomical Associ ...
* List of astronomical observatories
This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in ...
* South African Astronomical Observatory
South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's funct ...
References
External links
Friends of Boyden
University of the Free State
{{Authority control
1889 establishments in Orange Free State
Minor-planet discovering observatories
Astronomical observatories in South Africa
Harvard University
Mangaung