The Object-Glass of the Greenwich “Great Equatorial Telescope”

Howse H. D. , Greenwich Observatory, iii: The buildings and instruments (London, 1975), 89–90.

Airy G. B. , Report of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors (hereafter AR's report) 1852, 12.

Airy G. B. , “Address to the individual members of the Board of Visitors”, 1855 October 18.

Airy , AR's report 1859, 18.

Simms William to Airy G. B. , 11 September 1855, Royal Greenwich Observatory archives (hereafter R.G.O. archives) 6/169/F34.

Airy G. B. to Merz G. & Sons , 14 September 1855, R.G.O. archives 6/729/F558.

Merz to Airy , 24 September 1855, R.G.O. archives 6/729/F559.

Airy to Merz , 18 October 1855, R.G.O. archives 6/729/F564.

Airy to Merz , 15 November 1855, R.G.O. archives 6/729/F566.

Merz to Airy , 22 November 1855, R.G.O. archives 6/729/F567.

Airy to Merz , 26 November 1855, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F568.

Airy to Merz , 18 February 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F731.

Merz to Airy , 26 February 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F732.

Airy to Merz , 20 August 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F734.

Merz to Airy , 27 August 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F735.

Airy to Merz , 1 September 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F736.

Merz to Airy , 6 September 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F739.

Airy to Merz , 24 November 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F740.

Merz to Airy , 9 December 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/730/F743.

Merz to Airy , 6 June 1857, R.G.O. archives 6/732/F631.

Merz: Account, R.G.O. archives 6/732/F632.

Merz to Airy , 20 October 1857, R.G.O. archives 6/732/F636.

Airy to Simms, 4 October 1856, R.G.O. archives 6/169/F67.

Airy to Merz , 14 October 1857, R.G.O. archives 6/732/F634.

Hussey W. J. , “Micrometrical observations of the double stars discovered at Pulkowa …”, Publications of the Lick Observatory, v (1901), 43.

Dawes W. R. , “Catalogue of micrometrical measures of double stars”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxxv (1867), 137–502, p. 158.

Grubb Thomas to Airy , 7 January 1858, R.G.O. archives 6/169/F85.

Airy to Grubb , 9 January 1858, R.G.O. archives 6/169/F86.

Howse , op. cit. (ref. 1), 90–92.

Airy , AR's report 1859, 6.

Astronomical results from observations made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (hereafter Astr. results Observ. Greenwich) 1860, 85.

Astr. results Observ. Greenwich 1868, Appendix III.

Airy to Merz , 21 April 1860, R.G.O. archives 6/738/F525.

Merz to Airy , 25 April 1860, R.G.O. archives 6/738/F526.

Airy , AR's report 1860, 11.

Airy , AR's report 1861, 8.

Christie W. H. M. , AR's report 1892, 10.

Christie , AR's report 1893, 11.

Howse , op. cit. (ref. 1), 118–19.

Martin E. G. , private conversation, c.1952.

Christie , AR's report 1894, 10.

Brachner A. , “German nineteenth-century scientific instrument makers”, in de Clercq P. R. (ed.), Nineteenth-century scientific instruments and their makers (Leiden and Amsterdam, 1985), 127–9.

Brachner A. , Mit den Wellen des Lichts: Ursprunge und Entwicklung der Optik in Suddeutschen Raum (Munich, 1987).

Chance W. H. S. , “The optical glassworks at Benediktbeuern”, Proceedings of the Physical Society, xlix (1937), 433–43.

Encyclopaedia Britannica , 15th edn (1978): Micropaedia: Ii, article Carmina Burana.

Howard-Duff I. , “Joseph Fraunhofer (1787–1826)”, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, xcvii (1987), 339–47.

“The large refractors of the world”, The observatory, xxi (1898), 239–41.

Merz G. and Merz S. , “Liste des instruments de l'Institute Optique de Merz, Utzschneider et Fraunhofer” (Munich, 1861).

Details of the work of the Merz objective have been extracted from the AR's reports 1860 to 1939, and Astr. results Observ. Greenwich 1860 to 1939. Post-1957 work is in the personal knowledge of the author.

Airy G. B. , “On the eyepiece for the correction of atmospheric dispersion”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxx (1870), 57–59.

Astr. results Observ. Greenwich 1877, pp. xxiii–xxv (descriptions of the Browning and Hilger spectroscopes).

Foucault L. , “Mémoire sur la construction des télescopes en verre argenté”, Annales de l'Observatoire Impérial de Paris, v (1859), 197–237, pp. 200–8.

Malacara D. (ed.), Optical shop testing (New York, 1978), 82–84.

Kingslake R. (ed.), Applied optics and optical engineering, i (New York and London, 1965), 205–6.

Danjon A. , “L'objectif de 486 millimètres de l'Observatoire de Strasbourg”, Revue d'optique théorique et instrumentale, iii (1924), 305–14.

Main R. , “On the present state of our knowledge of the parallax of the fixed stars”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, xii (1842), 1–60, Appendix II, p. 49. (Appendix II is a translation of parts of Bessel F. W. , “Vorläufige Nachricht von einem auf der Königsberger Sternwarte befindlichen großen Heliometer”, Astronomische Nachrichten, viii (1831), cols 397–426.)

Ambronn L. , Handbuch de astronomischen Instrumentenkunde, i (Berlin, 1899), 326–7.

Main , op. cit. (ref. 56), 53.

Ibid., 55.

Bessel F. W. , “Fernere Nachricht von der Bestimmung der Entfernung des 61^sten Sterns des Schwans”, Astronomische Nachrichten, xvii (1840), cols 257–76.

Hoffleit D. , The bright star catalogue, 4th edn (New Haven, 1982), 327.