Current local of Herschel's 20 foot telescope

For a net article I am working on, I am trying to confirm the current
location of Herschel's 20 ft telescope. From web surfing, I understand
that Herschel's 20 ft telescope is in the collection of the British
National Martime Museum. In 2001, it was loaned to the U.S. National
Air and Space Museum. I assume since then it was returned. Is the
scope physically stored in Bath?

On a point of personal curiosity, I am looking at a photograph in
King's _History of the Telescope_ (p. 131, Fig. 60) showing "The
remains of the [Herschel] 40" foot telescope" shown in a garden at
Observatory House in Slough. It appears to be first 6 or 7 foot of the
tube that housed the primary mirror. The photo is dated 1924. Is the
40 scope tube bottom still located there?

Regards,

Canopus56

wrote:
In 2001, it was loaned to the U.S. National
Air and Space Museum. I assume since then it was returned. Is the
scope physically stored in Bath?


It was still there in 2004, because I was very suprised to see it there.

Steve

Steve wrote:
wrote:
In 2001, it was loaned to the U.S. National

Air and Space Museum. I assume since then it was returned. Is the
scope physically stored in Bath?


It was still there in 2004, because I was very suprised to see it there.

Steve
It is on permanant loan there as there was no place in the Scinece
museum there. I doubt it will ever come back.

Owen

Owen Brazell wrote:

It is on permanant loan there as there was no place in the Scinece
museum there. I doubt it will ever come back.

Not unusual in the permanent loans dept.

When I was young they were called gifts. Unless the giver was not the
owner. Usually that was called disposing of stolen goods.

"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

Owen Brazell wrote:

It is on permanant loan there as there was no place in the Scinece
museum there. I doubt it will ever come back.

Not unusual in the permanent loans dept.

When I was young they were called gifts. Unless the giver was not the
owner. Usually that was called disposing of stolen goods.
Gifts, are not quite the same.
Long term loans are very common, both between museums, and by private
owners. One 'classic' example, would be a privately owned painting.
Assuming it has a high value, the costs of keeping it are high (insurance,
security, temperature/humidity control, etc. etc..). Put it on long term
loan, and the museum has to pay all these costs. If in twenty years time,
you need to sell it, you are still the owner. Between museums, decisions
on storage space, and the nature of exhibitions likely, lead to such
loans, and often there is a degree of 'trade' involved. It avoids the
problems that would be associated with either giving or selling (where
there may well be a 'hue and cry' about the 'loss' of a national
treasure), and though usually done for significant periods (in some cases
generations!), may well have to be returned when circumstances change (a
number of such exhibits have had to be returned, when the museum doing the
lending, opens a new building, and decides that it now has got the space).

Best Wishes

Thanks, Steve.

I'm sure we will return it to our English brethern in good time.

Any idea on the bottom of the tube of the 40" scope shown in the 1924
photo in the garden at Observatory House in Slough?

- Canopus56

Roger Hamlett wrote:
Long term loans are very common, both between museums, and by private
owners.

The Science Museum and the US have a long history of long term loans -
the Apollo capsule at the SM is a "long term loaner", probably as a quid
pro quo for the SM taking the "Wright Flyer" when the Americans didn't
believe the Wright brothers had primacy in the flight department. It
didn't go back to the USA until the 1940s.

There are doubtless other examples. The scope was well presented, and I
have a picture of it in situ at the Air and Space museum if anyone would
like a copy.

THE two best aerospace museums are in the US - the National Air and
Space and the US Airforce museum at Wright-Patterson Airbase in Dayton.
They have EVERYthing there, Boxcar, SR71s, many of the recent Boeing
deep research projects, an entire B52, a B2 and a F117 to name a
tiny,tiny fraction

Steve

wrote in message
oups.com...
For a net article I am working on, I am trying to confirm the current
location of Herschel's 20 ft telescope. From web surfing, I understand
that Herschel's 20 ft telescope is in the collection of the British
National Martime Museum. In 2001, it was loaned to the U.S. National
Air and Space Museum. I assume since then it was returned. Is the
scope physically stored in Bath?

On a point of personal curiosity, I am looking at a photograph in
King's _History of the Telescope_ (p. 131, Fig. 60) showing "The
remains of the [Herschel] 40" foot telescope" shown in a garden at
Observatory House in Slough. It appears to be first 6 or 7 foot of the
tube that housed the primary mirror. The photo is dated 1924. Is the
40 scope tube bottom still located there?

Regards,

Canopus56


You had several answers settling the question of the location of Herschel's
20-foot telescope. I think this is the same telescope taken by John
Herschel to the Cape in the 1830s; his father designed it to be dismantled,
moved, and re-erected easily.

Observatory House itself is, of course, no longer there, having been
demolished to make way for road expansions and eventually a shopping centre
in Slough. I believe the National Maritime Museum has the section of the
40-foot that you saw in the photo, but not (as far as I know) on display.
The primary speculum mirror was in the Science Museum in S. Kensington but I
haven't checked for years, is it still on display?

Check with the NMM for those details.

--
Mike Dworetsky

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wrote in message
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Mike Dworetsky wrote:
You had several answers settling the question of the location of
Herschel's
20-foot telescope. I think this is the same telescope taken by John
Herschel to the Cape in the 1830s; his father designed it to be
dismantled,
moved, and re-erected easily. . . . . I believe the National Maritime
Museum has the
section of the 40-foot that you saw in the photo, but not (as far as I
know) on display.
The primary speculum mirror was in the Science Museum in S. Kensington
but I
haven't checked for years, is it still on display?

Thanks, Mike. The best offline answer I received was from the William
Herschel Society. It confirms your recollection. There is a journal
article catalogued all existing Herschel telescopes in 1998:

Journal of the Antique Telescope Society, Issue 14 - Winter 1998.

There are 17 complete 7ft and four 10ft telescopes listed in the
article.

I must get a copy of that article!


Herschel worked continuously with two primary mirrors - one was rotated
into the scope and a second was in the workshop being resilvered.

Not silvered (a chemical process on glass, that revolutionised astronomy),
but repolished, as speculum metal tarnishes quickly.


Article/catalogue entry A-2 is the 20ft scope that is described as:

"Completed in 1783. William Herschel's most used telescope. Rebuilt by
John Herschel and used by him at the Cape 1834-1838."

Herschel took two specula with him for use on the 20-foot. While one was
being used, the other was being repolished.


This appears to be the scope on loan to the U.S. Nat'l Air and Space
Museum.

A second primary mirror for the 20ft is listed as being at the South
African Museum, Cape Town.


This makes sense, it was probably left at the Royal Observatory as a gift
when John Herschel and his family returned to England. Is this guess
correct?

Catalogue entry A-1 is the 40ft. The catalogue entry lists the 2nd
primary and partial tube at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

The first primary mirror for the 40ft. and the grinding tools for the
mirror are listed as being on display at the Science Museum, London.

- Canopus56


Thanks, that is all very useful information.

--
Mike Dworetsky

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