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The Poetry of Benjamin Gould
Observatory Lyrics Tom Tom the President Begged Grabbed the money and quickly spent But Jimmy was caught though he was bought And now Tommy’s going to get what he ought. This little bit of doggerel was one of Benjamin A. Gould’s ways of blowing off steam. He would pen a scathing poem directed at whoever…
Read MoreNo Longer in the Collection: Scheutz Difference Engine
Of all the instruments that Dudley has used throughout its century and a half of operation, the one that most stands out is the Scheutz Difference Engine. Although it is now housed in the Smithsonian, the Scheutz served Dudley well for the first half of its life, and it allowed a small observatory with limited…
Read MoreA Scientific Puritan: Benjamin Apthorp Gould
Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel and James Armsby both deserve credit for inspiring and founding the Dudley Observatory. But when Mitchell was tied up working as an engineer, Armsby had to look elsewhere to find a director who could organize the construction of the Observatory building and get the instruments working. Through a developing partnership with the US Costal Survey,…
Read MoreCharles Dudley vs. The Velociraptor
Oh, the joys of working at a hybrid museum … Notice, no sweat on Charles Dudley. After years of being at the top of New York State politics, he no longer fears anything. The dinosaurs are here, and the exhibit will officially open on June 4th. Charles Dudley will soon disappear behind some scenery until they’re…
Read MoreAn Event of No Ordinary Interest
On August 28, 1856, at the end of a conference for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Albany, the visiting scientists met with many of New York’s political elite to witness the inauguration of the Dudley Observatory. The event probably looked something like this: This is a painting by Thompkinss Matteson (1813-1884),…
Read MoreThe Lazzaroni
Given that the Inauguration of the Dudley Observatory took place right after the AAAS convention, it’s not surprising that many of the attendees were scientists. However, some of the names of the list of attendees stand out: Alexander Dallas Bache, superintendent of the foremost scientific institution in America at the time, the US Costal Survey. …
Read MoreWhere Was Dudley?
I get this question a lot. Actually, I usually get “Where IS Dudley?”, which requires me to explain that we don’t have an observatory at the moment, but we’re working on it. But after that, someone has to explain where the two Dudley Observatory buildings were. Fortunately, because the Observatory’s latitude and longitude needed to be…
Read MoreRestoration of the Pruyn
I’ve been telling everyone for years now that the Pruyn Brashear Telescope is in good shape. It looks that way to me, but really, I’m not the expert. Thankfully, the telescope experts from Ray Museum Studios have now looked at it, and agreed that it’s in be in remarkably good shape for its age. In fact, despite the fact…
Read MoreThe Great Patroness: Blandia Dudley
Writing about Blandina Dudley can be tricky. I can wish it were different, but almost all of our sources focus on her relationship with the men around her. Basically, any discussion of Mrs. Dudley fails the Bechdel test. Mrs. Dudley was born Blandina Bleecker, part of the prosperous Dutch Bleecker family. Her great-grandfather, Jan Jansen…
Read MoreWhere Was Dudley? Part 2
In 1892, Dudley Observatory director Benjamin Boss took stock of the observatory’s position in the field of astronomy and found it wanting. Dudley was had fallen behind the times, with no equipment to do spectroscope work and no telescope capable of doing photo-astronomy. Worse, the position of the Dudley made fixing these problems difficult. The…
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