The Padua Observatory and the Merz Workshop Under the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Abstract
The Astronomical Observatory of Padua was subjected to the administration of the Habsburg Empire from 1813 to 1866, so it had a strong relationship with the German optical industries, especially with the "Utzschneider & Fraunhofer" workshops, where Georg Merz worked from 1808 and became director in 1826, at the Fraunhofer's death, and then with the "Merz" Factory. The Observatory, therefore, preservs several instruments whose optical parts were worked under the direction of Georg Merz or his sons: an achromatic telescop and a parallactic machine both made in 1822, signed 'Utzschneider and Fraunhofer'; a 'comet seeker' and an altazimuth telescope commissioned in 1842 by Giovanni Santini, on the occasion of the IV Congress of Italian Scientists, held in Padua that year; an equatorial telescope with an aperture of 116 mm, from 1858, and finally the large equatorial telescope with an aperture of 187 mm, that arrived in Padua in 1881, purchased by the heirs of Baron Ercole Dembowski, who was the first owner.
Coverage
Merz Telescopes, A Global Heritage Worth Preserving
Start page
69
Ads BibCode
2017mete.book...69Z
Rights
restricted
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2017_Merz-telescopes-Padova.pdf
Description
[Administrators only]
Size
1018.07 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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