From Stonehenge to Keck: Architecture and Astronomy

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From Stonehenge to KeckArchitecture and
Astronomy

• C. G. De Pree
• RARE CATS
• Green Bank, WV
• June 2002

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Questions

• Why have societies observed the heavens since
  ancient times?
• What sort of structures have been associated with
  observing the sky?
• How have these structures changed with time?

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Overview

• Ancient Observatories
• 16th and 17th Century Observatories
• Early Modern (19th century) Observatories
• Modern Observatories

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Ancient Observatories

• Stonehenge/Newgrange
• Chichen Itza, Caracol Tower
• Locations
• Horizon line
• Uses
• Religious
• Timekeeping
• Ceremonial

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Newgrange (3200 BCE)

• Aligned to winter solstice (light interior)
• One of thousands of sites in Europe
• Stonehenge

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Caracol (Snail) Tower

• Location Chichen Itza, Northern Yucatan
• Period Mayan, c. 1000 AD
• Interior 16.7 m-diameter tower with spiral
  staircase and four doorways aligned with cardinal
  directions
• Upper room 7 openings aligned with the
  equinoxes and the S transit of Venus

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Caracol Tower at Chichen Itza
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Caracol Tower

• Astronomical function solstice and equinox
  alignments, some star alignments
• Religious function apparent alignments with
  Venus
• Mayan tablets mention the rising of Venus
• Worship of the wind god Ehecatl

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16th to 18th Century Observatories

• Uraniborg/Stjarneborg (Tycho Brahe)
• LObservatoire de Paris
• Louis XIV
• Royal Greenwich Observatory
• Flamsteed, Astronomer Royal

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Uraniborg Castle

• Location Island of Hven
• Date 1576-1580 (pre-telescope)
• Complex included castle, observatory, papermill,
  earthworks, dams and ponds
• Subsidized by Danish State (1 of national
  budget)
• Purpose determine accurate planetary positions

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Uraniborg Grounds and Interior

• Castle too small
• Mounts unstable

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Stjarneborg Observatory

• Funded by Danish king Frederick II
• Lost funding under Christian IV (1596)
• Brahe came under patronage of the German emperor
  Rudolf II
• Relocated to Observatory near Prague (1599)

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Paris Observatory

• Louis XIV funds l'Observatoire Royal
• Architect Claude Perrault (ded. 1672)
• Oriented with the cardinal points of the compass
  (in 1667)
• Paris latitude Latitude of the south face
• Paris longitude Meridian line passing through
  building center

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Paris Observatory--Planned Uses

• Offices for astronomers/academics
• Lecture hall and laboratories
• Instruments dedicated to the astronomical
  observations

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Old Greenwich Royal Observatory

• Location Greenwich, England
• Founded 22 June, 1675 by King Charles II
• Primary purpose To solve the problem of finding
  longitude
• John Flamsteed, Astronomer Royal
• Observatory added functions over time

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17-18th Century Interiors
Observing/Reception Room
Flamsteed Apartment
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Meridian Building

• Houses a ten-foot transit instrument, installed
  in 1816
• Bradley's original transit instrument is shown

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Airy Transit Circle

• Sir George Biddell Airy (7th Astronomer Royal)
  designed a transit instrument, installed in 1850
• Transit circle special type of telescope moves
  in a vertical circle
• Transit circles used to accurately measure
  stellar positions

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Altazimuth Pavilion

• The Altazimuth Pavilion (1899)
• Named after the altaz telescope originally
  installed in its dome
• Dome now contains a 'photoheliograph (solar
  projection)
• Weather vane over the dome represents Halley's
  Comet as seen in the Bayeux tapestry

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The South Building

• Originally called the New Physical Building
  (1899)
• Astronomer Royal, William Christie (architect
  William Crisp)
• 4 wings housed branches magnetic and
  meteorological, astro-photography, time, and
  library
• The dome originally accommodated a 30-inch (76.2
  cm) reflecting telescope

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Jantar Mantar

• Jantar Mantar five observatories built by Sawai
  Jai Singh II
• Locations New Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Ujjain
  and Mathura.
• Built AD 17241730

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Samrat Yantra (Gnomon)

• Gnomon 90 feet high, points toward Polaris
• Used to find time and declination and hour angle
  of stars and planets
• Either side of the gnomon is a masonry quadrant
• to read time
• steps provided

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Early Modern Observatories (19th C)

• More remote locations (outside cities)
• Still show integration of observing structure,
  teaching space and research space
• e.g. Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago
  (1897)

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Yerkes

• Architect Henry Ives Cobb
• Funded Charles Yerkes (Chicago streetcars)
• Astronmer George Ellery Hale (U. Chicago)
• Exterior Animals, signs of the Zodiac, phases of
  the Moon
• Architecture and technology of late 19th century,
  77-acre site

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1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago/Installation
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Yerkes 40 in Refractor
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Yerkes Architectural Detail
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Modern Observatories

• Separation between observing structure and
  office/research structure
• Mt Wilson Telescopes/Cal Tech
• Keck I and Keck II/Waimea headquarters/Cal Tech
• Very Large Array/Array Operations Center/NRAO
• HST/NGST/NASA/STScI

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Palomar Observatory

• George Ellery Hale (Yerkes)
• Grants from Carnegie Institution of Washington
• Mount Wilson 60-inch reflector first completed
  (1908)
• Harlow Shapley measures the size of the MW and
  our position in it
• 1928, 6 million grant from Rockefeller

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• Mt. Wilson 100-in 200-in telescopes

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Keck Headquarters

• Located in Waimea
• Telescopes are 48 miles from HQ
• Most employees work at headquarters
• 20-25 technicians and engineers commute daily to
  summit
• Annual budget 11 million

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Keck Telescope
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Keck Control Room
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Very Large Array
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VLA (view looking South)
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Orbiting Observatories

• Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
• Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST)
• Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

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Reflections

• Astronomical architecture has evolved along with
  astronomical technology
• Telescopes and the structures that house them are
  becoming more and more remote from most people
• From earliest times, there are alignments with
  cardinal points
• Growing separation between instruments and
  observers

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