Talk:List of largest optical refracting telescopes

Sort by mirror diameter
How comes if I sort by diameter of the mirror, the 125 cm comes AFTER the 102, and the 25" comes AFTER several 24" telescopes?

Sort Columns
sorting the numerical columns sorts by 1st number, not by numerical value. Can this be changed?

Comprehensive Listing?
If this listing is supposed to be comprehensive, not just exemplary, the vintage 12" refractor on the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus is missing: http://www.astro.illinois.edu/~uias/observatour.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.54.115.119 (talk) 23:16, 8 September 2009 (UTC)


 * See comment below about how this list is ridiculously outdated in many ways, and probably should not include ANYTHING below 16-inches unless it's simply doing it for historical reasons... but it's not an article about the history of large optical refracting telescopes, it's supposed to be a list of the current largest ones. 149.97.32.58 (talk) 23:17, 8 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I concur with this. While most of these refractors would be valid for a 'comprehensive' list of all refracting telescopes, and most even for a 'historical' list, it's getting downright silly to include refractors of 10" in a list with as nominator 'largest refracting telescopes'. If you're going that far, you can include those of 8", 6" and 4" as well: it makes no difference, and they're all not suitable for that list. A minimum of 16" to be in the list of largest refractors should be required.

Others missing
There is also the 12 1/4 inch Grubb refractor installed in Oxford 1874. It is currently housed in Keele Observatory: http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/~obs/ http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/~obs/optics_main.htm

The salient details for this are aperture 12.25 inches (310 mm), focal length 4.39 metres —Preceding unsigned comment added by Old astronomer (talk • contribs) 13:02, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

There is also the 1904 Alvan Clark & Sons 16-inch Refractor at the Cincinnati Observatory: http://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/faqs.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.111.131.74 (talk) 20:20, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Washington State University maintains the 1889 Alvan Clark & Sons 12-inch refractor, in Pullman, WA, at the Jewett Observatory. http://astro.wsu.edu/program/jewett-history.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.46.159.146 (talk) 14:59, 8 December 2011 (UTC)


 * The problem is that, in today's day and age, it's pretty easy to have a 12 to 14-inch refractor. There are probably hundreds if not thousands out there, and only those that are really old were "large" back in their time period, but that is now a historical note and by today's standards they shouldn't be considered "among the largest".  I think this list shouldn't include anything below 16 inches in today's day and age. 149.97.32.58 (talk) 23:15, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Since opening in 1935, more than seven million people have put an eye to Griffith Observatory's original 12-inch Zeiss refracting telescope. More people have looked though it than any other telescope in the world. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.180.167.11 (talk) 15:08, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

The 36/33 cm double refractor by Repsold/Steinheil at the old observatory in central Uppsala, Sweden, should also be in this list. http://www.astro.uu.se/history/storaref.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.253.15.135 (talk) 21:55, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Comments
I'm sorry but the last edit make the table look ugly.

The article that Paris 1900 Exposition links to (Exposition Universelle (1900)) dose not talk about the telescope: could someone knowledgeable about the topic fix this? --Canageek 19:29, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

Paris 1900 refractor
If I remember well, this instrument was a DOUBLE refractor - the lenses optimized for visual and photographic use, resp. Source: Sky & Telescope somewhen in the sixties - perhaps J. Ashbrook's column "Astronomical Scrapbook". In addition I seriously doubt that (vertically mounted) lenses were designed to sag into correct figure. --ECeDee 19:22, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
 * See also 1911britannica - there is a hint in favour of double refractor --84.178.136.47 19:37, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The double refractor was at Meudon (Paris Observatory). The Paris 1900 Exposition instrument was a simple refractor and was horizontal (see article), it was a total failure I think the glass was deformed by its own weight. Ericd 14:53, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
 * I remembered not very well. Today finally I got hand on my source: J. Ashbrook's column "Astronomical Scrapbook" in Sky & Telescope, Aug. 1958, p. 509. The Great Paris Refractor (Exposition instrument) in fact was single, but had two lenses (see article). This agrees with the Britannica information. --ECeDee 22:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Bigger?
Surely somone has made a bigger optical refracting telescope in the last 100 years? Some of the stubs i've worked on have 5 meter diameter telescopes, the radio telescopes can get up above 50 (of course they aren't refracting optical)--Rayc 23:45, 26 October 2005 (UTC) 5 meter ? Reflector not refractor.... Ericd 21:27, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Maybe we just learned that big refracters aren't very practical, and that very large aperture telescopes should be reflectors? 149.97.32.58 (talk) 23:20, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.129.193 (talk) 09:13, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Lick ranking
The folks at Lick claim the 36 inch is actualy the 2 largest in the world. This claim is also repeated in the DVD sold at the gift shop. Who's right? Jwissick (t)  (c)  23:18, 6 November 2005 (UTC) "sorted by lens diameter." if we consider focal length Lick is bigger than the Swedish telecope. Ericd 00:46, 7 November 2005 (UTC) I spoke with the folks at Lick and they were not aware of the Swedish scope and have made the change to the tour dialog... Felt bad to be the bearer of bad news for them...  Oh well. Jwissick (t)  (c)  15:13, 7 November 2005 (UTC) Actually the Swedish Solar Telescope is an unusual catadioptric made of a singlet lens objective followed by an adaptive mirror and a re-imaging lens (http://www.solarphysics.kva.se/publications/prints/scharmer03meter.pdf page 3) so the Lick refractor remains the second largest TRUE refractor in the world. LC 8:40, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Pulkovo Refractor
The 30-inch Pulkovo Refractor is a famous and important telescope, build by Clark (lens) and Repsold (mount). It was destroyed in World War II, but it should be featured or mentioned here.

Belgrade Refractor
How can this instrument be the same that the small refractor of Berlin when they heve different focal length ? I know both are Zeiss instruments. Was one modified later ? I know there is a 50cm at Nice that was improved with a better Zeiss lens given as reparation for war. Ericd 14:09, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Paris 1900 Refractor.jpg
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 * let's see...A picture of 1900 shown in 2017+... what could it be that makes it freely (speech and beer) usable... hmmm...

The 'John Wall' telescope: a 30-inch amateur refractor in the UK
There is a 30-inch amateur refractor in the UK - see Hanwell Community Observatory. It was constructed by John Wall to his own design and comprises a single full aperture objective and several sub-aperture corrector lenses placed at/near the prime focus. The design apparently removes most false colour and is the basis for a commercially available 8-inch apochromatic refractor. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.196.231.155 (talk) 09:56, 15 October 2010 (UTC) hello

THe Innes Refractor, Johannesburg
The list should include this one: http://assa.saao.ac.za/html/his-tel-innes-67c_26_5i.html. It is still in Johannesburg. The list mentions a scope located at Johannesburg that was moved to Australia - I don't think that is correct, and even if it is, it is different to the telescope I have provided a link to, which is definitely still in Johannesburg. I looked through it as a kid in thr 1980s. I believe it is the largest refractor in the southern hemisphere, so it would be good to get this entry right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.81.191.5 (talk) 11:56, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

This statement is essentially correct. The Union Observatory (in Johannesburg) was commissioned around 1925 or 1926. The director at the time was Robert Innes and the 26.5" refractor was ordered from Thomas Grubb and Son. Grubb was purchased by Parsons while the scope was being made. This instrument was abandoned in the early 1980's but was rescued by an amateur effort and is now used for public outreach and school tours. I was an occasional operator of this telescope until 2007.

The 26" telescope referred to in the Yale southern station was originally installed in the Boyden observatory (near Bloemfontein, South Africa), not in the Union Observatoy, Johannesburg. It was moved to Mt Stromlo (Australia) around 1952 and - as the list records destroyed in a fire. I have heard that this instrument was fabricated by Alvin Clarke but I have not been able to confirm whether this is accurate.NoiseJammer (talk) 01:46, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

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prime and double prime?
I don't know anything about telescopes. Are the imperial measurements (manually converted from metric) really supposed to be annotated with prime ( U+2032) and double prime (  U+2033)? When I noticed it at the Yerkes Observatory table entry, I thought it was a one-off. Not so. There are four prime characters denoting feet but 64 double prime characters denoting inches. Is that how it is supposed to be done for astronomical instruments?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 23:28, 4 October 2023 (UTC)