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Star Observations & Personal Equation
Image: Album - Photographs
Source: Museum Victoria
Observing the precise positions of stars required a huge amount of technology, calculation and concentration on the part of the observer. The astronomer would watch the star as it crossed the field of view of the transit telescope, then press a button as the star crossed each of several fine lines in the eyepiece, and press a button when the star met a crossing horizontal and vertical line. Each time the button was pressed a mark was made on a rotating sheet of paper on a precisely controlled chronograph.
Then the astronomer had to shift position and read several microscopes directed at the finely ruled scales on the transit circle, to determine both declination and right ascension (the celestial equivalent of latitude and longitude). Including the taking of the temperature and air pressure, there were as many as 22 different observations to be made for a single star. (See Maunder 1900, pp. 156-63 for a description of the procedure at Greenwich Observatory.)
The observation itself was only the start. Each observation had then to be adjusted carefully to allow for many factors that would influence the measurement: the bending of the star's light rays by the earth's atmosphere, the known errors of the instrument, and other technical factors such as precession, nutation and aberration. These laborious calculations had to be made using pencil and paper and logarithmic tables. A transit observation of 3 or 4 minutes could take hours of computation.
Even the observer had to be taken into account as a source of error. In 1796 the British Astronomer-Royal had dismissed his assistant because he had a 'vicious way of observing the times of the Transits too late', by as much as a second. Astronomers realised that each one had a slightly different way of recording the time; some anticipated the star crossing the line a moment too early, others were slow. Frequent testing allowed the calculation of each observer's peculiar but fairly consistent habits, or 'personal equation', and this could be allowed for in the final calculation of the star's position.
Melbourne Observatory's astronomers would undertake observations of the same stars, to compare their personal equations and adjust their observations to a common standard. When in 1883 Australian observatories undertook to more accurately determine the longitude of each observatory, Pietro Baracchi, a young scientist who was soon to join the Melbourne Observatory staff, was sent to each Australian observatory to compare his personal equation with those of the primary observers in each colony. Typically the differences were no more than a quarter to a third of a second, but it was important to adjust for these if accurate determinations of longitude were to be made.
References:
Maunder, E. Walter (1900). The Royal Observatory Greenwich: A Glance at its History and Work, London: The Religious Tract Society.
Schaffer, Simon (1988). 'Astronomers mark time: discipline and the personal equation,' Science in Context, 2, pp.115-145.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 71 - 80) 376 items
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Negative - Sunshine Recorder, Melbourne Observatory
Sunshine recorder on roof of Main Building, Melbourne Observatory. Also visible are the dome of the Astrograph House (erected 1889), and an anemometer.
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 1 -
Negative - Tide Gauge House, Williamstown, 1928
Breakwater and Railway piers, Williamstown. Tide Gauge house visible.
From: Williamstown, Australia Images: 1 -
Negative - Equatorial Telescope, 8 Inch, Melbourne Observatory, circa 1960
Eight inch equatorial telescope at Melbourne Observatory. Telescope made by Troughton & Simms, London, and installed at the observatory in 1874. Photograph taken circa 1960, when the te ...
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 1 -
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Thermometer - Terrestrial Radiation, Negretti & Zambra
Terrestrial radiation thermometer, made by Negretti & Zambra, London. Range - 20 to + 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Used at Melbourne Observatory.
From: London, United Kingdom Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Galvanometer - Thomson
Thomson galvanometer. Used at Melbourne Observatory
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 0 -
Negative - Main Building, Melbourne Observatory, 1969
View of main observatory building, Melbourne Observatory, with Government House tower in background.
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 1 -
Negative - South Equatorial House & Photoheliograph House, Melbourne Observatory,1969
View of South Equatorial House and Photoheliograph House, Melbourne Observatory
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 1 -
Negative - Main Building, Melbourne Observatory, post 1883
View of northern elevation of main building at Melbourne Observatory (post 1883, when East Transit Room was erected), and prior to erection of Computing Room in 1892.
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 1 -
No Image Available
Depth Tool
Depth tool used to mesh clock wheels. Used at Melbourne Observatory workshop.
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 0 -
No Image Available
Standard Volumes - Quarter Gill to 1 Gallon, Victoria
Set of 7 brass standard measures stamped 'S50', comprising 1 gallon, 1/2 gallon, 1 quart, 1 pint, 1/3 pint, 1/4 gill. Plus 2 cover slips for 1 gill and 1/4 gill. Used at Melbourne Obse ...
From: South Yarra, Australia Images: 0
