History of Astronomy - The Story of the Lee Equatorial and Smythian Telescopes

A friend at Cleveland and Darlington Astronomical Society introduced Rob to the Bedford Catalogue (first published 1844) around 2004.  Rob has since updated the position of all 850 objects from Epoch 1840.0 to 2000.0 enabling them to be matched up with modern designations. The updated list can be found on the Webb Society’s web site at https://www.webbdeepsky.com/articles/rediscovering-the-bedford-catalogueInvestigating the life of the Bedford Catalogue’s author, Admiral William Henry Smyth followed on naturally from discovering and updating this, the first popular guide to the night sky. A part of this has been tracing the history of the two equatorially mounted telescopes he used to collect the observations he reports in his catalogue. In tonight’s talk Smyth’s life will be briefly covered. However mostly, I will describe the telescopes, their makers and how they have found their way from Smyth’s garden observatory to the Science Museum today. Looking at the telescope accessories leads…