Astronomer Past

[xelasnave]

My Son married his loverly wife in a little sandstone church on the central coast. The church had an attached grave yard. I couldnot help notice the memories of James Dunlop a historic figure in Australian Astronomy. this stone was on the entrance of the church as well as a tomb stone in the grave yard
alex

[atalas]

Hey interesting find Alex!


Louie

[toetoe (Peter)]

Fantastic piece of history Alex.

[xelasnave]

Here is another "history" thing.
I was given a 235 mm mirror and secondary by a client when I was in real estate. The mirror had a date on the back 1875.
I posted this on astronomydaily.com and Pizwiz (Adolph) found this wood print of the original scope... here it is.
alex

[acropolite (Phil)]

Thanx Alex, I love history, and all things old, especially Australian.

[iceman (Mike)]

Is that church at Kincumber? I live on the central coast! Nice pics!

[xelasnave]

I think so..it is on a large roundabout from memory...
go have a peek it is obvious that the congragation has thought highly of this man.
BTW the 235 mm has a focal lenght of 1800mm which is longer than the 12inch.
The scope was built originally to observe a solar event (Venus transit?? whatever) for I think a Major Patten of the Dutch East India Company.
I rebuilt it but after getting the mirror back and seeing some small scratches I tried to polish them out with rouge ... good idea but do it before getting the mirror recoated.. and yes I ruined the new coating.. a very expensive lesson...anyways its in the to do basket now.
\alex

[xelasnave]

Here is an interesting link given to me by Dave M (Dim28) in a forum at astronomydaily.com which may be of interest to astronomer historians

http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/similar/dunlop.html

and not so historical

http://www.ngcic.org/Dunlop/Dunlop.htm
alex

[toetoe (Peter)]

Both good links Alex, thanks