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Observatory now a national historic site


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#1 amor de cosmos

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Posted 28 July 2010 - 12:36 PM

In spite of its name, I guess it never occurred to me that this was Canada's national observatory. Parks Canada says it was moved here from Ottawa due to the better weather & low cloud cover:

“The DAO and its early staff helped bring Canadian astronomy to an extremely high level of international regard,” says its director, Dr. Jim Hesser. He adds that the Parks Canada designation allows NRC to maintain the Observatory as a working scientific instrument while respecting its historic architecture.

According to Dr. Hesser, the Observatory building’s design may still say “1918” to casual eyes, but nearly a century of accumulated upgrades make the telescope 10,000 times more sensitive than it was when new — and thus capable of contributing to 21st century astronomical research.

The 1.8 metre diameter Belgian-cast glass primary mirror that first caught starlight on May 6, 1918, was replaced in the mid-1970s with one that is unaffected by temperature changes. The original spectrograph — an instrument that breaks down a star’s light to determine its chemical composition — has been upgraded many times. Digital cameras and a new polarimeter developed by the NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (NRC-HIA) have taken advantage of emerging technologies. But the building, Observatory dome and nine-metre steel telescope frame remain original.


http://www.nrc-cnrc....bservatory.html
http://www.pc.gc.ca/...=1625&andor1=nr

Located in Saanich, British Columbia, The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) is a world-renowned observatory where many discoveries about the nature of the Milky Way galaxy were made, using the observatory’s 1.83-metre reflecting telescope and spectroscopes, and where collaborative research with international observatories gave Canadian astronomers an important international role. It was built using the world’s most advanced design for an observatory, after extensive consultation at the international level, and was remarkable for its accuracy, clarity of optical lenses, and spectroscopes, thus improving measurements of radial velocities, spectroscopic parallaxes and spectroscopic orbits.

The observatory is directly associated with the work of Canadian astronomer John S. Plaskett (1865-1941), who discovered at the observatory the largest known solar binary mass in 1922, and with many other notable and internationally respected Canadian astronomers who used the observatory to better understand the universe and improve the technical equipment used in land-based observatories. From an architectural perspective, the Observatory’s otherwise pragmatic metal-clad exterior features pilasters, entablatures and other classically inspired architectural embellishments applied to its steel-framed structure.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/...=1398&andor1=bg

#2 Mike K.

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Posted 28 July 2010 - 12:57 PM

The observatory hosts fascinating public star gazing and info sessions every summer. I highly recommend attending one of the sessions.

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