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Stour Astronomical Society

SAS visits the IOA 23rd October 2010

The Stour Astronomical Society visits the Insitute Of Astronomy, Cambridge on the 23rd October 2010

Our tour guide was Mark Hurn, the Departmental Librarian, for which we are truly grateful for him giving us his time to show us around.

The Institute of Astronomy (IoA) is the largest of the three astronomy departments in the University of Cambridge, and one of the largest astronomy sites in the UK. Around 170 academics, postdocs, visitors and assistant staff work at the department.

Research at the department is made in a number of scientific areas, including stars, star clusters, cosmology, the high-redshift universe, AGN, galaxies and galaxy clusters. This is a mixture of observational astronomy, over the entire electromagnetic spectrum, computational theoretical astronomy, and analytic theoretical research.

The Kavli Institute for Cosmology is also located on the department site. This Institute has an emphasis on The Universe at High Redshifts. The current plans are to also bring the Cavendish Astrophysics Group onto the site eventually.

The Institute was formed in 1972 from the amalgamation of earlier institutions:

• The University Observatory, founded in 1823. Its Cambridge Observatory building now houses offices and the department library.
• The Solar Physics Observatory, which started in Cambridge in 1912. The building was demolished in 2008 to make way for the Kavli Institute for Cosmology.
• The Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, which was created by Fred Hoyle in 1967. Its building is the main departmental site (the Hoyle Building), with a lecture theatre added in 1999, and a second two-storey wing built in 2002.

Telescopes

The Institute houses several telescopes on its site. Although some scientific work is done with the telescopes, they are mostly used for public observing and astronomical societies. The poor weather and light-pollution in Cambridge makes most modern astronomy difficult.

The telescopes on the site include:

• The Northumberland Telescope donated by the Duke of Northumberland in 1833. This is a 12-inch (300 mm) diameter refractor on an English mount and in its time was one of the world's largest refracting telescope.








The Northumberland is the only remaining large instrument from the early days of the University Observatory, and is preserved because of its great historical interest. It was for some years one of the world's largest refracting telescopes with an accurate clock-driven equatorial mounting to follow a star in its diurnal motion across the sky.

When Airy left Cambridge to take up his post as Astronomer Royal in 1835, his successor as Plumian Professor and Director of the Cambridge Observatory was James Challis (1803-1882). Challis lived at the Observatory until 1861. In 1846 Challis carried out with the Northumberland Telescope a systematic search for a new planet, on the basis of calculations provided by John Couch Adams. On the continent, the planet later to be called Neptune, was predicted by Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811-1877) and discovered by J. G. Galle (1812-1910) and Heinrich Louis d’Arrest (1822-1875) on the night of 23 September 1846 at the Berlin Observatory. Key to the success of Galle and d’Arrest was the possession of the star chart (Hora XXI Aquarius) of the Berlin Academy Star Atlas of Carl Bremiker. This chart of the atlas had been printed in 1845 but had not yet been distributed. It allowed Galle and d’Arrest to find the planet rapidly, whilst Challis had to map every star in the area.

• The smaller Thorrowgood Telescope, on extended loan from the Royal Astronomical Society. The telescope is an 8-inch (200 mm) refractor.








This 8-inch refracting telescope made by Cooke & sons in 1864 went through a series of wealthy amateur owners before arriving in Cambridge in 1929. It belongs to the Royal Astronomical Society, from whom it is nominally on loan to the University.

• The 36-inch Telescope, built in 1951 and thought to be the largest telescope in the UK.








The telescope was built in 1951-55 by the now-defunct firm of Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons & Co. at Newcastle-upon Tyne. It replaced a much older telescope of the same aperture, which was brought to Cambridge from South Kensington when the Solar Physics Observatory moved here in 1913.

In the early years of its operation, the telescope was used to send starlight into a spectrometer where the light intensities in several wavelength regions. which were accurately defined by masks in the focal plane of the spectrum, could be inter-compared. The intention (only partly realized, owing to the previously unrecognized individuality of the various stars) was to obtain astrophysically significant information about the chemical abundances and atmospheric characters of the stars surveyed. Three successive spectrometers, of progressively increasing size, resolution, and sophistication, were used in that effort.

The Cambridge University Astronomical Society (CUAS) and Cambridge Astronomical Association (CAA) both regularly observe. The Institute holds public observing evenings in University term-time on Wednesdays.

The Observatory Building

This beautiful building built on Cambridge's "Meridian Line" use to house a telescope. It now hosts the very well stocked library and other fine rooms.

Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944)

Eddington was Plumian Professor from 1913 to 1944 and lived in the Observatory until his death in 1944. He is famous for having promoted relativity theory in the English-speaking world and proving it right with his 1919 eclipse expedition. Einstein came to stay at the Observatory with Eddington in 1930.

Here's the dining room where Einstein had dinner.

Sculptures

Fred Hoyle created The Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (IOTA!) 1967. The present Institute of Astronomy arose from the amalgamation of this and other institutions in 1972.

Astronomy Department: Pulse. By John Robinson, 2001.

This scuplture kept our interest for a while.

Notable Current Members

• Robert Kennicutt (Director) (Plumian Professor of Astronomy)
• George Efstathiou
• Andrew Fabian
• Gerry Gilmore
• Donald Lynden-Bell
• Martin Rees

Notable Past Members

• Robert Woodhouse
• George Airy
• James Challis
• John Couch Adams
• Robert Stawell Ball
• Arthur Eddington
• Richard Ellis
• Fred Hoyle
• Harold Jeffreys
• Jeremiah Ostriker

Over the years, many famous astronomers, including Stephen Hawking, have worked at the Institute. The current Plumian Professor and Director of the IoA is Robert C. Kennicutt from Arizona whose interest is in extragalactic observational astronomy. Lord Rees, the current President of the Royal Society also has an office at the Institute.

In November 2009 the Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge opened on our site as a joint centre with other Cambridge departments with an interest in observational cosmology.

Many thanks to all who attended and for the kind permission of Pete Simms for the telescope pictures.