Saturday December 28, 1894

Discussed with Sir H. Grubb's draughtsman arrangements for new shutter to Astrographic Dome, new Altaz. Dome & base of 26in Photo-Telescope.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

Friday December 28, 1894

Returned to the Observatory in the afternoon and saw Sir H. Grubb's draughtsman about shutter of Astrographic Dome, blown off in gale of Dec. 22. Gave M^r Jordan Super^t of the Park two litho' plans of Obs^y showing new Physical Obs^y.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

Saturday December 22, 1894

The shutter of the Astrographic Dome was blown off into the court at 11^h 32^m/ The wind was blowing 50 miles per hr, the pressure was 30 lbs per sq. ft. The head-piece of the dome fell inside, just missing M^r Davidson, who was printing reticles. The falling shutter struck the roof of the T.C. room breaking a few tiles and coping of the N.W. of the roof. It then fell on to the porch leading into the T.C. room, breaking one pane; it bent the corrugated iron covering in the front court & fell into the court. Niblett & Woodman at once covered the instrument with light tarpaulin, while Simmons procured some heavy tarpaulin from Mess^rs Mowlem & Co. Six of their men, who were engaged on the building of the New Altazimuth with Cross & Barnard firmly lashed this over the opening.

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

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RH says..... Oh dear, disaster strikes again just as Christie has left for his holidays. What is great about this is that not only do we have a photograph recording the incident, but that Dyson tells us that the falling piece of shutter nearly hit Davidson, one of the Observatory's human computers. It's just as well that it missed as this is the very same Davidson who went on to become an Assistant and to head the famous eclipse expedition to Sobral in 1919 at the same time as Arthur Eddington was in Principe, in an attempt to provide observational proof of Einstein's theory of relativity. Eddington, who had been a vocal supporter of Einstein, and Dyson, who had suggested the idea and organised the whole, generally get the credit for this work, but it was the photographs taken in Sobral under Davidson that provided the usable data. Davidson, Eddington and Dyson were co-authors of the 1920 paper on their results.

Monday August 20, 1894

M^r Crisp called wanting to know whether Cooke’s tender for removing & remounting Lassell dome included the race. I shewed him the papers on the subject, but we found no definite statement whether this was included in the term “dome”. He explained that he intended to insert words like “including the race” in accepting the tender.

Frank Dyson, Chief Assistant

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RH says..... I am not sure what the "race" of the dome is, and may well have mis-read it. All suggestions welcome!

Tuesday January 2, 1894

In the evening severe weather, with snow set in. The Astrophotographic Dome was left open by the observer, & on the next morning the telescope & inside of dome were covered with snow, which however had not melted.

H.H. Turner, Chief Assistant

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Rebekah Higgitt says.......

Bad weather - a perennial problem for astronomers! This image just misses the astrographic dome, which was built above the building off the right (west). It does, however, show the large dome covering the 28-inch telescope with the smaller dome that housed the Sheepshanks telescope in front.