comet seeker
A comet seeker is a type of small telescope adapted especially to searching for comets: commonly of short focal length and large aperture, in order to secure the greatest brilliancy of light. This style of telescope was used to discover the asteroid 9 Metis in 1848. • Illustration — Comet seeker telescope, Helsinki observatory. Made by Utzschneider and Fraunhofer in 1830s. • Illustration — A comet closeup, visited by a probe in the early 21st century • Illustration — A comet as seen from Earth
comet seeker
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Design
Design
A comet seeker telescope is a type of optical device that is known for having a short focal length but a wide field of view.
Examples
Examples
A comet seeker with about 3.9 inch aperture was installed at the United States Naval Observatory in 1843, and later transferred to the Smithsonian Museum in 1866. It had an aperture of 4 inches (10.2 cm) and was made by Utzschneider & Fraunhofer in Munich. This was operated as part of a suite of several other instruments including a larger refractor on an equatorial mounting, a meridian transit, mural circle, etc. Markree Observatory added a 3-inch aperture Comet Seeker on an equatorial mount by Ertel. It was ordered in 1842, and in place until 1874. The Markree Comet Seeker was used to discover 9 Metis in April 1848. It was discovered by Edward Cooper's assistant Andrew Graham, who worked at that observatory until 1860. Graham also observed and sketched the Orion nebula with this Ertel Comet seeker. An 8.6 cm aperture Comet Seeker was used, with some customizations, to produce the Bonner Durchmusterung star catalog from Bonn Observatory, in the 19th century. In 1866 a Comet Seeker telescope of 18 cm aperture by Martin was acquired by the Marseille Observatory in France.
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- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4229546: comet seeker
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- “Comet seeker”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Comet seeker, revision 1367274323 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Comet-seeker. 763.
- 2.Utzschneider & Fraunhofer, Merz & Mahler Refracting Telescope (Comet Seeker). Smithsonian Institution.
- 3.Cambridge University Press. The General History of Astronomy. 1900. 9780521242561.
- 4.Doberck, William. Markree Observatory. The Observatory. 7. 91. 329–332. 1884.
- 5.Steinicke, Wolfgang. Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters: From Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue. Cambridge University Press. 2010-08-19. 9781139490108.
- 6.Howard-Duff, I. Joseph Fraunhofer (1787-1826). Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 97. 6. 339. 1987.
- 7.Lequeux, James. Le Verrier—Magnificent and Detestable Astronomer. Springer Science & Business Media. 2013-03-15. 9781461455653.
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