Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 31

OBSERVATORY AESTHETICS

by Tim Wetherell

This backyard structure recalls
classic tastes of the Victorian age.

I

've always had an affinity for 19th-century telescopes,
because they were so beautifully made, with every bit as
much attention given to the aesthetics as to the engineering. The idea of beautifying scientific equipment may seem
strange these days, but as an amateur astronomer, my priorities are rather different than those of a professional scientist. I
observe purely for enjoyment, and using handsome equipment
greatly enhances that experience, in much the same way that
lovely decor in a restaurant enhances the dining experience.

The Inspiration
Having made a Victorian-style telescope and mount several
years ago (S&T: May 2011, p. 64), I had the idea of creating
a permanent home for a similar instrument that matched
its style and that would optimize its usefulness in the British weather. In the United Kingdom you can often spend an
hour setting up a telescope only to have the clouds to roll in.
Conversely, even on cloudy nights there are often periods of
clarity that a rapidly deployed telescope can take advantage
of. Our winter nights also tend to be cold, damp, and windy!
So having the telescope permanently mounted in an observatory offers significantly more opportunities to observe and to
do so in far greater comfort.
Constructing observatories in the Victorian style in its
heyday was the sport of English Lords and American industrialists. Since I'm neither of the above, it was quite a challenge to work out how to make something that would have a
similar feel yet still fit into the corner of my modest English
garden while adhering to a sensible budget.
My starting point was to study as many 19th-century
observatories as possible. Some, such as Yerkes Observatory
in Wisconsin, are masterpieces of classical architecture, but
their scale is far too Olympian for the aesthetics to work in a
domestic garden. Others, such as Ladd Observatory at Brown
University in Rhode Island, are more modest in size but still

very beautiful. At the small end of the scale, the Aldershot
Observatory in the UK manages to elegantly capture the
essence of Victorian design in a relatively tiny building.
I concluded that a small circular structure with brick
walls and a copper dome would best encapsulate the look I
was after. I began my design by making sketches before moving on to scale models constructed of cardboard and glue.
Even after being an artist for many years, it still surprises me
how different a design can look on paper compared to when
it's transformed into three dimensions.
One thing that came to light during the modelling process
was that the building looked much better if it had windows,
especially if the tops were rounded. Of course, from a practical perspective, windows in an observatory are not necessarily a desirable thing, but this was one of several cases in
which aesthetics won out over practicality.
Inside the model observatory, I also made a moving model
of the telescope and mount to ensure it wouldn't hit the roof
and walls as it went through the complex gyrations of slewing a long refractor on a German equatorial mount. This also
enabled me to experiment with various shutter designs.

t STELLAR SHRINE British amateur Tim Wetherell's observatory is
designed to complement the Victorian aesthetics of his home, garden,
and even the telescope it houses.
u WINDOW TO THE UNIVERSE The aluminum panels on the interior
of the dome were custom-printed with mirror-reversed images from
Vincenzo Coronelli's celestial globe.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * O C T O B E R 2 0 17

31


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Sky and Telescope - October 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - October 2017

Contents
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 1
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 3
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 4
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 5
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 6
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 7
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 8
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 9
Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 10
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Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 31
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