Armagh Observatory Virtual Visit

Grubb 10 inch Refractor

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Dr. Dreyer started a fund to set up a telescope in T.R. Robinson's memory. The fund reached the sum of 100 pounds. With this and a grant of 2000 pounds from the Government, the 10 inch refractor and a dome for it were purchased.

The telescope was mounted on 28th July, 1885 and regular work with it began in September 1885, the first programme involving a re-examination of some nebulae which had been suspected of change (see Dreyer, Mon. Not. Roy. astr. Soc., 47, 412, 1886). After 1893, micrometrical measurements of double stars, together with occasional work on phenomena such as the 1895 transit of Mercury were carried out (see Mon. Not. Roy. astr. Soc., 55, 213, 1895). W.F.A. Ellison was assisted by his son Mervyn, later Director of Dunsink Observatory, in double star observations. The pairs in Holmes' and Sheiner's catalogues were re-examined. Results were published in Mon. Not. Roy. Astr. Soc., 85, 1021, suppl., 1925; 87, 465, 1927; 89, 138, 1928. During the course of this work, Ellison discovered a number of new double stars.

One of the most energetic stellar flares ever observed was seen by Dr A D Andrews with this telescope in 1969 - it may still be a record to this day (see "Out of the Zenith: Jodrell Bank 1957- 1970" by B. Lovell, Oxford University Press, 1973; and Nature, 222, 1126 & 1129, 1969).