Building Of Observatory May Start Next Month
The building of the Joyce Memorial Observatory at West Melton is expected to start next month. The observatory will be built for the Canterbury Astronomical Society at a cost of about £l5OO. excluding equipment. The president of the society (Mr F. P. Andrew) said yesterday that, all going well, the observatory would be in use by May. Initially the observatory will house three telescopes, several large cameras, and a satellite tracking station. The tracking station is on loan from the Smithsonian Institution and is expected to arrive in Christchurch from the
United States before the i observatory opens. The society has already bought a reflecting telescope which it believes will be the largest in the South Island, if not New Zealand. The observatory will have a special aluminium alloy dome 16ft in diameter. The dome will be mounted on a delicately poised swivel to enable astronomers to expose their instruments directly to the sky.
Mr Andrews said the society would open the observatory to persons who took an intelligent interest in astronomy.
The site had been chosen to avoid interference from the lights of Christchurch and fog.
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Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 18
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194Building Of Observatory May Start Next Month Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 18
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