On the 26th of March, AstroSoc was kindly hosted by UCL observatory for a tour around their amazing facility. Right at the heart of the observatory sits the Radcliffe telescope seen below. The main telescope has an aperture of 60cm and focal length of 7m. This extraordinary telescope was built in 1901 and once used 12in square glass plates for astrophotography. What surprised me was the control panel which seemed like it was from an 80s Sci-Fi film!
The Fry telescope is super intriguing. It is a completely manual telescope and has a bunch of levers to lock the telescope in place. The most interesting part in the gravity powered tracker. The tracking device has to be wound up every 15 minutes to tracker the right ascension axis to compensate for the movement of the earth. Our guide told us that this contraption is so precision only watch makers could make them. How cool is that?
We also had the chance to view the 14-in Celestron telescope. This is completely robotically controlled and carries out a lot of observations. We had a chance to see how the controller software works. Its pretty amazing to see the entire dome roof rotate!
A massive thanks to Mark, the Outreach Coordinator of UCL, and his students for introducing us to the telescopes and answering our questions!
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