Historical & Cultural Astronomy
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Historical & Cultural Astronomy More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15156 Wayne Orchiston John Tebbutt Rebuilding and Strengthening the Foundations of Australian Astronomy Wayne Orchiston National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand Suthep District, Muang , Chiang Mai , Thailand ISSN 2509-310X ISSN 2509-3118 (electronic) Historical & Cultural Astronomy ISBN 978-3-319-44520-5 ISBN 978-3-319-44521-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44521-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953048 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Foreword Astronomy is still one of the very few sciences in which independent astronomers can play a valuable role and in which their work is welcomed by professional astronomers. There have been many outstanding independent astronomers in astro- nomical history, and one of the greatest of these is, without doubt, John Tebbutt. Tebbutt spent his entire life in Australia, and never ventured abroad, but his repu- tation was truly international. His home-built observatory at Windsor, in New South Wales, was comparatively modest, but he made the best possible use of it, and his work covered many aspects of observational research; he was also the discoverer of two of the brightest comets of the nineteenth century, those of 1861 and 1881. Long before the end of his career, he was accepted as Australia’s leading astronomer, which, it has to be admitted, caused a certain amount of jealousy in some quarters, and explains why he did not receive as much Government recognition as he unques- tionably deserved (though this has been to some extent put right much more recently; his portrait was to be found on an Australian banknote—an honour certainly unique for an amateur astronomer—and a lunar crater has been named after him). Up to now, there has been no full-scale biography of this remarkable man. Wayne Orchiston is uniquely qualifi ed to write one, and he has fi lled a notable gap in the literature. His book gives full details of Tebbutt’s life and accomplishments, but it does more than this; it paints a graphic picture of the scientifi c community of the time, and does not attempt to gloss over Tebbutt’s rather strained relationships with some of his contemporaries. At least, nobody ever questioned the quality of Tebbutt’s observational work. Wayne Orchiston has carried out a tremendous amount of research, and one out- standing feature of his book is the very extensive list of references, which will be of great value to future historians of science. The text is also very readable, so that it will be of equal interest to readers who have little or no prior knowledge of the subject. This is a timely book, which has been long awaited. It merits a place in every astronomical library and will certainly remain the standard work in its fi eld. Patrick Moore v Pref ace How well I remember that sweltering Saturday back in 1959, not long after my father had scored a new job and we all migrated across ‘the ditch’, from tiny Lincoln in New Zealand , and settled in Sydney, Australia’s largest city. With lunch pack in hand, I took the train from Wollstonecraft to Blacktown, in Sydney’s far-western suburbs, and the rickety little rail motor out to Windsor, some 30 miles distant (see Figs. P.1 , P.2 and P.3 for Australian, greater Sydney and Windsor localities men- tioned in this book). Then came a long hot walk from the station, my destination being a conspicuous cluster of tall trees just east of the town where the weekend before I had caught a fl eeting glimpse of a dome-like structure amongst some old trees as my father and I sped through Windsor for the fi rst time by car. Could this possibly be the famous Windsor Observatory of John Tebbutt? Some years before, under the starry skies of my native New Zealand I had read with great fascination about Tebbutt, and when our family shifted to Sydney at the end of 1958 it gave me an unexpected opportunity to go in search of this remarkable Australian astronomer. But there was no point in raising my hopes unduly, for the Observatory may not have survived the ravages of time—after all, Tebbutt had died in 1916, more than 40 years earlier. These thoughts and others raced through my teenage mind as I walked with mounting excitement through the town, the distant trees growing ever nearer. At long last, I reached the outskirts of picturesque historic Windsor (Fig. P.3 ), passed the old courthouse and headed down Pitt Street, with paddocks on either side, punctuated to the right by a line of willows marking South Creek . Upon near- ing Palmer Street, I caught sight of the group of ageing trees I had glimpsed the week before, plus a stately old two-storey homestead and a cluster of farm build- ings, all nestled on a little hillock, surrounded by the fertile alluvial silts deposited by fl ood-prone South Creek. As I moved ever closer, I suddenly saw it: one of the supposed farm buildings underwent a visual metamorphism to emerge as a hand- some little brick cottage, but surmounted by a green dome. Beside it was another, much smaller, brick building, also topped by a dome (see Fig. P.4 ). There was no doubt—I had ‘discovered’ Windsor Observatory. The thrill of that moment will live with me forever! vii viii Preface Fig. P.1 Australian localities mentioned in this book ( Map Wayne Orchiston) Fig. P.2 The ‘greater Sydney region’, showing localities and geographical features mentioned in this book ( Map Wayne Orchiston) Preface ix Fig. P.3 Present-day Windsor, showing the locations of the Railway Station ( 1 ), the historic Courthouse ( 2 ), South Creek (3 ), Tebbutt’s Homestead and Windsor Observatory ( 4 ), St. Matthew’s Church ( 5 ) and the Hawkesbury Museum (6 ) ( Map modifi cations Wayne Orchiston) Fig. P.4 This is very similar to my fi rst view, in 1959, of the Tebbutt Homestead (in the trees left of centre) and assorted ‘farm’ buildings on the Peninsula Estate ; initially, the dome of the ‘little cottage’ was not obvious because of the large tree directly behind it ( Photograph Wayne Orchiston) x Preface Fig. P.5 John Halley Tebbutt (on the left ) and my brother Peter Orchiston at the John Tebbutt Observatories on 25 April 1992 (ANZAC Day); in those days, many people mistook Peter for my twin brother ( Photograph Wayne Orchiston) Thus, began a research project that was to extend, intermittently, over more than half a century and culminated in the writing of this book. In the process, I came to know the owner of the property, Bruce Tebbutt (1904–1963), who was a grandson of the astronomer, and his successor, a great-grandson named John Halley Tebbutt (b. 1942; Fig. P.5 ). I also explored the treasure trove of material in Sydney’s Mitchell Library, deposited in 1917 by John Tebbutt’s son for the benefi t of future researchers wish- ing to fl esh out the astronomical skeleton of this greatest of Australian nineteenth century astronomers. In addition to 16 annual reports and several volumes of meteo- rological observations (all published at his own expense), John Tebbutt left us cop- ies of his published papers, tomes of inwards bound letters, observational notebooks and a plethora of other invaluable archival material (for details, see the next chapter of this book). During 1960 and 1961, there were numerous weekend sorties to Windsor, some- times with other members of the North Shore Astronomical Society , and I began cleaning up the smaller observatory building with the intention of reassigning a tele- scope to it (Fig. P.6 ). I wrote my fi rst Tebbutt ‘paper’ at this time ( McDonagh and Orchiston 1961 ), a simple three-page year-by-year compilation of the sorts of astro- nomical objects and events that Tebbutt had observed. So, it was not really a research paper, or even a review paper, in the strict sense, but it did serve as an illuminating guide for other members of the Society and as a source of inspiration for me. Preface xi Fig. P.6 This July 1973 photograph shows the ivy-covered stand-alone observatory in which the North Shore Astronomical Society planned to instal an 18-in. (46-cm) refl ector back in 1960–1961 ( Photograph Wayne Orchiston) For reasons that had mainly to do with my relative youth and poverty, unfortu- nately the Astronomical Society’s plan to install Ignace Debono’s historic 18-in.