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WSU telescope a rarity, built by a pioneer makerNovember 11, 2003Even to the most amateur of astronomers, the name Hubble means something, one of the world's most powerful telescopes. But in the realm of telescopes, the name Alvan Clark is just as important, even though the public may not know it.Alvan Clark made some of the world's best known telescopes, including the one at Washington State University's Jewett Observatory. Alvan Clark was a portrait artist in New England in the mid-19th Century. One day, one of his sons approached him about making a telescope. Clark had no formal training in optics, but he and his sons worked, making mistakes and learning as they went. Debra Warner, a curator at the national Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., wrote a book about Alvan Clark. She says his part-time project became a full-time business. "The most important American telescope making firm, certainly in the 19th Century," she says. Debra Warner says Clark and his two sons would eventually turn out five of what were the largest telescopes in the world. One of Clark's telescopes eventually made its way to Pullman. How it got there is an interesting story, told by WSU Physics Professor Guy Worthey, as he sits in the dome of the Jewett Observatory. He says, in the 1940s, university officials were looking for pieces for the new observatory they were building. "I don't know the details, but they became aware via a contact in Harvard that there was this lens coming available by the heirs of an amateur astronomer who had commissioned it from Alvan Clark, and Company," he says. "And that lens had apparently been sitting in a bank vault for 50 years." And why would such a lens remain unused for so long? Worthey "This man apparently passed away right as the lens was being finished so he could never use it and no one was sure what to do with it," he says. I guess they knew it was valuable, so they put it in a bank vault." In her book "Alvan Clark and Sons: Artists in Optics", curator Debra Warner writes about 200 of the Clarks' telescopes. Some of the largest sit in the world's most famous observatories, like Yerkes in Wisconsin, Lick in California and Lowell in Arizona. "Most of the Alvan Clark and Sons telescopes that were made 100-150 years ago are still in use," she says. "There are very few of them in museum collections, I'm really quite happy to say." Warner says the Clarks were notoriously bad about record keeping, so her work has been to document the surviving Clark telescopes, everything from the largest to small scopes used by amateur astronomers of the era. But the news of WSU's Clark telescope caught her by surprise. "I'm so glad you called me. This WSU one is a very large telescope and it's one that had escaped our notice," she says. "I was enormously surprised. The Clarks did not make many of that size. The made about ten that we know of." What does a 19th Century telescope mean to a 21st Century university student? It opened up the heavens to thousands of WSU students during the last 50 years, including Karina Perez, a junior who discovered the Clark telescope at a public viewing event as a freshman. "They viewed Saturn through the Clark refractor, and I saw it. It was amazing. I saw the rings and I saw the actual color," she says. "And I'm like, this planet is millions and millions of miles away and I can see it. It just hit me right there that astronomy is so fun and especially just to have the privilege to come and view. It's great to have it here on campus." That first view ignited Perez's love for astronomy. She went on to join the Palouse Astronomical Society, where she is now the treasurer of the group. Public observing nights are held monthly at the Jewett observatory during the spring, summer and fall. By Steve Jackson |
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