Original post 27 July 2020
The #GreatMelbourneTelescope was installed at the #MelbourneObservatory in 1869 and was one of the biggest in the world – I thought it was long gone, then heard it hadn’t disappeared completely – turns out there’s a huge restoration project putting it back together and recreating parts at #Scienceworks only got to structurally complete stage Nov last year ! Apparently you get to see it on tours there.
It’s had a long difficult history – it’s mirror was difficult to use, and because it didn’t have a complete cover, winds made it vibrate, so it was a bit of a failure, but still, it was ours and it was Great ! In 1945 the observatory closed and it was sold to #MtStromlo in Canberra, where they used the parts to create a new telescope, which turned out to be very useful in early digital astro-photography in the 1990s. Then the terrible 2003 Canberra bushfires destroyed the observatory, but parts of the telescope survived, and so they were shipped back to Melbourne and restoration has been ongoing since 2008 (it has its own twitter account).
The #royalbotanicgardens has rebuilt the retractable roof on its building too – which is way behind all the others, in an area not open to visitors. Maybe we’ll get to see it and the #telescope at next years open house !
Storey of Melbourne 