Posts Tagged ‘Dudley Observatory’
Counting Questions: Dudley Observatory FAQ
To start off, I thought I would use this space to answer some of the most common questions that I receive on the exhibit floor: Where is the Observatory? Funny story about that. We’re actually an observatory without an observatory. During the sixties and the space race, Dudley Observatory shifted away from astronomical observation and…
Read MoreFrom the Collection: the Pruyn Brashear Equatorial Telescope
With the recent announcement that Dudley will be building an observatory, it seems like a good time to introduce the piece that will be at the heart of that observatory: the Pruyn Brashear Equitorial. After all, an observatory isn’t much use without a telescope. The Pruyn is a refracting telescope, which means it is exactly…
Read MoreOne, Two, Three ..
… gosh, there are a lot of them, aren’t there? Welcome to Counting Stars, a repository for writings on the history of and around the Dudley Observatory. Those of you joining us from Facebook or All Over Albany may be unfamiliar with the Dudley Observatory. Here’s a nutshell version: Dudley is an observatory founded in the 1850s here in…
Read MoreDudley’s Female Computers
Dudley Observatory has spent most of its 160 years as a working science institution, and not a museum. That means that its employees weren’t always focused on saving the kind of materials that a museum would preserve. Of course, they saved the astronomical materials they were working with, but not always the bits and pieces…
Read MoreUnprofessional Science
In a previous post, I mention the “professionalization of science,” a cultural shift in which Dudley had a part to play. It immediately raises the question, what exactly does “un-professional science” look like? What came before? We actually have a good example here in the Capitol Region. Most readers will know of the Albany Institute…
Read MoreHarry Raymond (1876-1961)
A great “thank you” to Dorothy Matsui of Redmond, WA, for finding us and sending us material from her grandfather, Harry Raymond. Raymond was an astronomer for Dudley from 1905 until 1939, meaning his career spans the creation of the General Catalog. Raymond’s memoirs will hopefully fill in some of the gaps in our understanding…
Read MoreOdds and Ends: Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Throughout its history, Dudley Observatory has had a weird sort of half-fame. Yes, it’s a modest observatory in smAlbany, but there have been a lot of eyes upon it. Particularly during the early phase, with the initial promise of an observatory that could compete with the best in Europe. As a result, I run into references…
Read MoreDr. James Armsby
In a previous post, I mentioned that Dudley had benefited from two institution builders, the first being Ormsby Macknight Mitchel. Mitchel was an energetic founder of observatories and lecturer on the topic of astronomy, and his enthusiasm is likely what started the idea of building the Dudley Observatory. But the person who first gave voice to…
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 More