The first all-metal English equatorial mounting of the ‘Cross Axis’ type was constructed in 1859 for a 24.1-cm (9.5-in) Cooke refractor owned by Isaac Fletcher of Carlisle, northern England. Over the next ten years Fletcher used this telescope for systematic observations of known double stars, and after his death it was acquired by S. Chatwood of Manchester. In 1902 the telescope was purchased by J.T. Ward for the newly-formed Wanganui Astronomical Society in New Zealand. Ward used the telescope to discover new southern double stars, and it was also the mainstay of public viewing nights. This educational function has remained through to the present day, and during the 1980s and 1990s O. Warren reactivated a micrometric double star program involving the re-measurement of the Ward and other southern double stars. Until recently, when the Carter Observatory’s equally-historic Cooke refractor was renovated, the ‘Fletcher Telescope’ was New Zealand’s largest operational refractor, and it has been maintained in excellent mechanical and optical condition.
...MoreBook Wayne Orchiston (2016) Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy: Trials, Tribulations, Telescopes and Transits.
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