Yerkes Observatory
Published on Jul 26, 2007 at 12:44 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under astronomy, observatories, telescopes, wonders.
Near Williams Bay, Wisconsin, right near the shores of Lake Geneva is Yerkes Observatory, owned and operated by the University of Chicago. The Yerkes Observatory is famous for housing the 40-inch Yerkes Refractor, the largest refracting telescope ever put into service, and for a while the largest telescope of any sort in operation in the world (a larger instrument had been previously built, but was no longer in service). Throughout Yerkes Observatory’s history, many of the world’s most prominent astronomers have been there.
The observatory began when George Ellery Hale, then a professor at University of Chicago, heard of glass blanks that had been cast for an extremely large telescope to be built by the University of Southern California. The blanks were unused, as money for the project dried up. Hale managed to acquire the glass blanks and got the world renowned Alvan Clark and Sons to polish them into 40 inch lenses. But, to house a telescope with 40 inch lenses required an observatory such as none that had ever been built before. That would cost far more than the University of Chicago could afford. So, Hale and William Rainey Harper, the president of the University of Chicago, approached Charles Tyson Yerkes, a transportation magnate and one of Chicago’s wealthiest individuals. Hale and Harper managed to convince Yerkes to fund the observatory, which was to bear his name. Hale even managed later to keep getting Yerkes to give money to cover cost overruns as construction proceeded. The observatory was completed in 1897.
Hale designed Yerkes Observatory for astronomical research. Until this time, observatories were generally built simply as buildings to house telescopes. A few observatories built far from the nearest towns and cities also included living arrangements for caretakers and astronomers, but little else. Yerkes Observatory was to include living accommodations, offices, a library, laboratories, and a machine shop. It was to have everything needed for astronomers to live and work there and do research without having to go some place else. Nor would all astronomers there necessarily have to be actual observational astronomers. Theorists were welcome, too. Yerkes was to be more than just a place to look at the heavens. It was to be a center for astrophysical research. This established new ideas for the design of observatories that were to influence all future plans for major observatories. The success of this design is evident in the wealth of discoveries made at Yerkes, and the science that is still being performed there even though there are now numerous larger telescopes.
The most famous telescope at Yerkes Observatory has always been the 40-inch refractor, though it is not the only telescope there. Yerkes is also home to a reflecting telescope of almost the same diameter that was placed there in the 1960s. The reflector is often called the 41-inch telescope to avoid confusion when referring to it rather than the 40-inch refractor. There are other smaller instruments at Yerkes, too.
The 40-inch telescope at Yerkes is the largest refractor ever built. The tube itself is 63 feet (19.2 meters) long! As it swings from looking near the zenith to looking near the horizon, the back end of the telescope swings about three stories above the floor of the observatory. Today, cameras, spectrographs, or photometers are placed at the focus of the telescope that can be operated from a computer some distance away. But, for most of the telescope’s history, the focal point of the telescope held an eyepiece or a camera requiring an astronomer to manually load and remove film plates. To reach the telescope, the floor of the observatory can be raised and lowered as needed to make access to the telescope easier.
Operating an observatory is expensive, and funds are in short supply everywhere. In 2005, the University of Chicago announced plans to sell the observatory. Not only are operations of Yerkes a drain on the university’s budget, but the land on which Yerkes sits has become extremely valuable. A developer wanted to build a resort on the site of the observatory, with promises to preserve the observatory itself. However, the public outcry against this plan has been a significant public relations problem for the University of Chicago. Officials at the university put a temporary hold on plans to sell the observatory. A study group was formed to provide recommendations on the future of the observatory. A decision on the future of the facility is due soon.
-Astroprof
Image credit: University of Chicago, Yerkes Observatory
Astroprof’s Page » Seven Wonders of Astronomy on August 9, 2007 at 12:00 am: 1
[…] 3) Yerkes Observatory: The home to the world’s largest refractor, and probably the largest that will ever be built. […]
Ron Krumpos on July 14, 2008 at 4:08 pm: 2
I visited with the Yerkes director in the summer of 1959, I believe he was from India. What was his name? What was the name and/or type of telescopes is use that year and where can I find information about them? Thanks for your help.