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thermometer hygrometer from console area of Wyeth telescope
Date: circa 1950
Inventory Number: 2016-1-0043
Classification: Hygrometer
Subject:
Maker: G. Lufft Metalbarometerfabrik G.m.b.H. (founded 1881)
Supplier: Abbeon Cal Inc. (founded 1946)
Maker: J. W. Fecker, Inc. (founded 1926)
User: Oak Ridge Station (1931 - 2005)
User: George R. Agassiz Station, Harvard (1951 - 1982)
User: Harvard College Observatory (founded 1839)
Associate Name: Stuart Wyeth (1862 - 1929)
Cultural Region:
City of Use:
Description:
Abbeon relative humidity and temperature indicator model no. M2A4 brass
SignedUnsigned
Historical AttributesThis hygrometer is from the control console area of the 61-inch Wyeth telescope at Oak Ridge Observatory.
The Wyeth was designed and built by J. W. Fecker of Pittsburgh in 1932-1933. It became operational in 1934. It had a fork-type mounting and instruments could be used at both the Newtonian and Cassegrain foci. Like its twin in Bloemfontein, South Africa (the 60-inch Rockefeller Reflector), the Wyeth originally used a 60-inch mirror made by A. A. Common, which was purchased in 1904. In 1936, the mirror was replaced with a 61-inch Pyrex mirror.
The 61-inch Wyeth reflector was the largest telescope east of Texas. It was decommissioned in 2005.
The primary observing program of the Wyeth included photo-electric photometry and spectroscopy.
Instrumentation included a CCD camera for astrometric studies of comets and asteroids, and an echelle spectrograph used for radial velocity studies of stars and searches for exoplanets. It was with this echelle spectrograph that Harvard astronomer David W. Latham discovered the first exoplanet in 1988.
The Wyeth’s photographic plate series is SH. It took 4x5 inch plates. Scale: 25 arcsec/mm Focal length; 321 inches
Plate numbers
279-575 Oak Ridge 1934/03/20 – 1936/02/07 (60-inch Common)
576-13830 Oak Ridge 1937/02/17 – 1989/10/27 (61-inch Pyrex)
The Wyeth was designed and built by J. W. Fecker of Pittsburgh in 1932-1933. It became operational in 1934. It had a fork-type mounting and instruments could be used at both the Newtonian and Cassegrain foci. Like its twin in Bloemfontein, South Africa (the 60-inch Rockefeller Reflector), the Wyeth originally used a 60-inch mirror made by A. A. Common, which was purchased in 1904. In 1936, the mirror was replaced with a 61-inch Pyrex mirror.
The 61-inch Wyeth reflector was the largest telescope east of Texas. It was decommissioned in 2005.
The primary observing program of the Wyeth included photo-electric photometry and spectroscopy.
Instrumentation included a CCD camera for astrometric studies of comets and asteroids, and an echelle spectrograph used for radial velocity studies of stars and searches for exoplanets. It was with this echelle spectrograph that Harvard astronomer David W. Latham discovered the first exoplanet in 1988.
The Wyeth’s photographic plate series is SH. It took 4x5 inch plates. Scale: 25 arcsec/mm Focal length; 321 inches
Plate numbers
279-575 Oak Ridge 1934/03/20 – 1936/02/07 (60-inch Common)
576-13830 Oak Ridge 1937/02/17 – 1989/10/27 (61-inch Pyrex)
ProvenanceOak Ridge Observatory, Harvard, MA., Building 6; transferred to CHSI, 2016.