The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004 Page: 312
660 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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On the night of September 1, 1885, E. E. Barnard used the Vanderbilt
University Observatory telescope to observe the new star in the Androme-
da Nebula. That telescope exists today on the Vanderbilt campus but in a
different observatory building. This photograph, which was taken about
1900, shows the T. Cooke & Sons refractor about as it was when Barnard
used it. Original features included a 6-inch objective lens, a weight driven
clock drive for movement at the sidereal rate, a generous supply of eye-
pieces and accessories, and an illuminator that sits atop the long tube. The
illuminator used a fuel oil lamp (not shown here) that swung in a gimbal
to backlight the spider web strands used in a micrometer. Attached for
viewing is a visual spectroscope from Germany. To an amateur astronomer
like Henry Moore, such equipment could only be dreamed of. He was fi-
nancially better off than many farmers in Texas so that he was able to pay
$200oo to buy a telescope in 1884. Moore's telescope, that does not survive,
had a 3.3-inch objective lens, three eyepieces, and probably some form of
tripod. Today, the relative value of his expenditure is about $3,600. By
contrast, Vanderbilt paid about $2,300 in 1875, or 415 pounds sterling ac-
cording to Cooke's 1874 catalogue. Today, that equates to about $38,ooo.
Photograph courtesy of Dyer Observatory at Vanderbilt University.
James Bryan's article, "Henry S. Moore: An Early Astronomer in Texas,"
is on pages 163-199 of this issue.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004, periodical, 2004; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101224/m1/356/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.