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From Stonehenge to Keck: Architecture and Astronomy

From Stonehenge to Keck: Architecture and Astronomy. C. G. De Pree RARE CATS Green Bank, WV June 2002. Questions. Why have societies observed the heavens since ancient times? What sort of structures have been associated with observing the sky? How have these structures changed with time?.

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From Stonehenge to Keck: Architecture and Astronomy

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  1. From Stonehenge to Keck:Architecture and Astronomy C. G. De Pree RARE CATS Green Bank, WV June 2002

  2. Questions • Why have societies observed the heavens since ancient times? • What sort of structures have been associated with observing the sky? • How have these structures changed with time?

  3. Overview • Ancient Observatories • 16th and 17th Century Observatories • Early Modern (19th century) Observatories • Modern Observatories

  4. Ancient Observatories • Stonehenge/Newgrange • Chichen Itza, Caracol Tower • Locations • Horizon line • Uses • Religious • Timekeeping • Ceremonial

  5. Newgrange (3200 BCE) • Aligned to winter solstice (light interior) • One of thousands of sites in Europe • Stonehenge

  6. Caracol (Snail) Tower • Location: Chichen Itza, Northern Yucatan • Period: Mayan, c. 1000 AD • Interior: 16.7 m-diameter tower with spiral staircase and four doorways aligned with cardinal directions • Upper room: 7 openings aligned with the equinoxes and the S transit of Venus

  7. Caracol Tower at Chichen Itza

  8. Caracol Tower • Astronomical function: solstice and equinox alignments, some star alignments • Religious function: apparent alignments with Venus • Mayan tablets mention the rising of Venus • Worship of the wind god Ehecatl

  9. 16th to 18th Century Observatories • Uraniborg/Stjarneborg (Tycho Brahe) • L’Observatoire de Paris • Louis XIV • Royal Greenwich Observatory • Flamsteed, Astronomer Royal

  10. Uraniborg Castle • Location: Island of Hven • Date: 1576-1580 (pre-telescope) • Complex included: castle, observatory, papermill, earthworks, dams and ponds • Subsidized by Danish State (~1% of national budget) • Purpose: determine accurate planetary positions

  11. Uraniborg: Grounds and Interior • Castle too small • Mounts unstable

  12. Stjarneborg Observatory • Funded by Danish king Frederick II • Lost funding under Christian IV (1596) • Brahe came under patronage of the German emperor Rudolf II • Relocated to Observatory near Prague (1599)

  13. Paris Observatory • Louis XIV funds `l'Observatoire Royal’ • Architect: Claude Perrault (ded. 1672) • Oriented with the cardinal points of the compass (in 1667) • Paris latitude: Latitude of the south face • Paris longitude: Meridian line passing through building center

  14. Paris Observatory--Planned Uses • Offices for astronomers/academics • Lecture hall and laboratories • Instruments dedicated to the astronomical observations

  15. Old Greenwich Royal Observatory • Location: Greenwich, England • Founded: 22 June, 1675 by King Charles II • Primary purpose: To solve the problem of finding longitude • John Flamsteed, Astronomer Royal • Observatory added functions over time

  16. 17-18th Century Interiors Observing/Reception Room Flamsteed Apartment

  17. Meridian Building • Houses a ten-foot transit instrument, installed in 1816 • Bradley's original transit instrument is shown

  18. Airy Transit Circle • Sir George Biddell Airy (7th Astronomer Royal) designed a transit instrument, installed in 1850 • Transit circle: special type of telescope moves in a vertical circle • Transit circles used to accurately measure stellar positions

  19. Altazimuth Pavilion • The Altazimuth Pavilion (1899) • Named after the altaz telescope originally installed in its dome • Dome now contains a 'photoheliograph’ (solar projection) • Weather vane over the dome represents Halley's Comet as seen in the Bayeux tapestry

  20. The South Building • Originally called the New Physical Building (1899) • Astronomer Royal, William Christie (architect William Crisp) • 4 wings housed branches: magnetic and meteorological, astro-photography, time, and library • The dome originally accommodated a 30-inch (76.2 cm) reflecting telescope

  21. Jantar Mantar • Jantar Mantar: five observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh II • Locations: New Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Ujjain and Mathura. • Built AD 1724–1730

  22. Samrat Yantra (Gnomon) • Gnomon 90 feet high, points toward Polaris • Used to find time and declination and hour angle of stars and planets • Either side of the gnomon is a masonry quadrant • to read time • steps provided

  23. Early Modern Observatories (19th C) • More remote locations (outside cities) • Still show integration of observing structure, teaching space and research space • e.g. Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago (1897)

  24. Yerkes • Architect: Henry Ives Cobb • Funded: Charles Yerkes (Chicago streetcars) • Astronmer: George Ellery Hale (U. Chicago) • Exterior: Animals, signs of the Zodiac, phases of the Moon • Architecture and technology of late 19th century, 77-acre site

  25. 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago/Installation

  26. Yerkes: 40 in Refractor

  27. Yerkes: Architectural Detail

  28. Modern Observatories • Separation between observing structure and office/research structure • Mt Wilson Telescopes/Cal Tech • Keck I and Keck II/Waimea headquarters/Cal Tech • Very Large Array/Array Operations Center/NRAO • HST/NGST/NASA/STScI

  29. Palomar Observatory • George Ellery Hale (Yerkes) • Grants from Carnegie Institution of Washington • Mount Wilson 60-inch reflector first completed (1908) • Harlow Shapley measures the size of the MW and our position in it • 1928, $6 million grant from Rockefeller

  30. Mt. Wilson 100-in & 200-in telescopes

  31. Keck Headquarters • Located in Waimea • Telescopes are 48 miles from HQ • Most employees work at headquarters • 20-25 technicians and engineers commute daily to summit • Annual budget $11 million

  32. Keck Telescope

  33. Keck Control Room

  34. Very Large Array

  35. VLA (view looking South)

  36. Orbiting Observatories • Hubble Space Telescope (HST) • Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) • Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

  37. Reflections • Astronomical architecture has evolved along with astronomical technology • Telescopes and the structures that house them are becoming more and more remote from most people • From earliest times, there are alignments with cardinal points • Growing separation between instruments and observers

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