Page 34 - Inventing Tomorrow

RETROSPECT
Written by SILVA YOUNG
STARS
for the
FReaching
or more than 50 years, public viewings at the Tate Observatory have delighted stargazers every Friday night during the fall and spring semesters. The evening begins with graduate students giving talks on comets, planetary orbits, supernovas, black holes, and more. After a few minutes of questions and answers, the group is led into a copper-green rooftop dome where they can gaze at the sky through the lens of a 120-year-old telescope.
It’s one way the University of Min- nesota’s Institute for Astrophysics (MIfA) has been bringing astronomy to the public and capturing the imagi- nation of future scientists.
Those who have visited the observa- tory can view the sky through a huge black telescope that points upward like a cannon barrel. Those who haven’t visited will have to wait a bit longer. The telescope has been safely secured, wrapped in plastic, while the historic Tate Laboratory of Physics undergoes a $92.5 million renovation.
“While the telescope was never used for any groundbreaking research, it does bring people to the University,
s The University's rst observatory building was located near the Mississippi River across from downtown Minneapolis.
34 INVENTING TOMORROW
it gets them interested in science, and, most of all, it is a priceless antique,” said Terry Jones, CSE professor of astronomy.
Looking forward and upward
The telescope was built by Warner & Swasey Company of Cleveland, Ohio in 1896, and the 10.5-inch, hand- ground double lens was made by John A. Brashear Company of Allegheny, Penn. Brashear was a Pittsburgh as- tronomer and instrument builder who gained worldwide respect with his optical elements and precision instru- ments. Nearly every observatory at the time purchased Brashear instruments for science and industry for their quality.
“In the late 1800s, if you were a uni- versity of any note, or aspired to be, you had an observatory and telescope,” Jones said. “Ours is in very good shape.”
As early as 1879, University of cials discussed the need for a working observatory to instruct students, to stimulate science interest, and to contribute to astronomical knowledge. Yet, it would be 1894 before University President Cyrus Northrop recom- mended that the Minnesota Legisla- ture make a $10,000 appropriation for an observatory and telescope.
The 500-lb. telescope nally arrived on campus in 1897 at a cost of $6,800. It was installed in an observatory located near the Mississippi River