[ATM] Russell Porter and Griffith coelostat

["Don Clement" <don_clement@charter.net>]

Recently it has been learned that the challenging task of creating a coelostat to feed the three separate telescopes fell to Russell W. Porter (1871-1949), one of the important founders of the hobby of telescope making, and an important instrument designer, architect, and illustrator connected with the 200-inch telescope project started by Hale in 1928. Porter's 1931 concept for Griffith Observatory resulted in both the moving tracking mirrors and the relay mirrors being mounted in parallel on separate polar axes, an innovation that subsequently effected the designs of coelostats at Caltech's Astrophysical Laboratory and at the McMath-Hulbert solar observatory at the University of Michigan. The detailed working drawings of Griffith's coelostat were made by E.C.Nichols of Mt. Wilson Observatory, and the device was fabricated by the Gaertner Scientific Co. of Chicago in 1935. As is true of the general layout of Griffith Observatory and many of its architectural features, the original concepts for the rotunda of the solar telescope were developed by Porter and his colleagues at Caltech and followed by the architectural consortium of John C. Austin and Fredrick M. Ashley.


http://www.lacity.org/rap/observatory/exhibits/bcoelostat.html 
_______________________________________________
ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/