Lowell Observatory
| Lowell Observatory | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
 Lowell Observatory |
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| location | Flagstaff , Coconino County , Arizona | ||
| Coordinates | 35 ° 12 '10 " N , 111 ° 39' 52" W | ||
| Built | 1894 | ||
| architect | Percival Lowell et al. a. | ||
| NRHP number | 66000172 | ||
| Data | |||
| The NRHP added | October 15, 1966 | ||
| Declared as an NHL | December 21, 1965 | ||
The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff , Arizona , USA was founded by Percival Lowell in 1894 to study the planet Mars and the Martian canals ("Canali") observed by Giovanni Schiaparelli from 1877 to 1879 . It has also been used for other astronomical research for around 90 years.
Lowell was a wealthy astronomer and thought the Canali (incorrectly translated as "Canals") for artificial structures of intelligent beings for the irrigation of the drying Mars. He attributed the color changes that he noticed during his observations to changes in the vegetation. This idea was pursued by some Mars researchers until the space probes were planned and arrived (Mariner 4 in 1965).
The observatory was planned by the brothers Edward and William Henry Pickering - on dry wasteland at an altitude of 2,210 m. It was equipped with the most modern instruments from the very beginning. B. 1910 the world's third largest reflector telescope with 1.1 m .
In 1912 Vesto Slipher began recording spectra of spiral nebulae in Flagstaff . Despite the bright instruments, exposures over several nights were necessary - except for the Andromeda Nebula . In this case the spectral lines were shifted into the blue (instead of red), which Slipher explained about the movement of our Milky Way . One of his students was Edwin Hubble , who later interpreted the general redshift due to expansion of the cosmos.
In 1930, after decades of preparatory work , Pluto was discovered in Flagstaff. The observatory has been used to search for asteroids for several years . An automatic telescope was developed for this in the “Near Earth Object Survey” ( LONEOS ) project.
Since 1959, the Lowell Observatory has operated a branch in Coconino County called Anderson Mesa Station ( IAU code 688).
The Lowell Observatory was recognized as a National Historic Landmark on December 21, 1965 . On October 15, 1966, it was included in the National Register of Historic Places .
The Discovery Channel Telescope has been in operation since 2012 as the largest telescope at the Lowell Observatory .
Web links
- Lowell Observatory
- Discovery Channel Telescope ( Memento of March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Arizona. National Park Service , accessed July 20, 2019.
- ^ Lowell Observatory on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed July 29, 2017.