Caption
Operation of complex telescope during night-time observations is performed at this sheltered, remote-control panel so that astronomer's body heat does not upset delicate functioning.
Date
December 1, 1963
Accession Number
NFB63-9716
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Collection
CMCP collection
Credit Line
© National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Caption
Revolutionary-type telescope is housed in cross-shaped white building, above. Sixty-year-old Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, is in background.
Date
December 1, 1963
Accession Number
NFB63-9697
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Collection
CMCP collection
Credit Line
© National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Caption
Star-position data filmed by telescope is later recorded on machine then transferred to punch cards.
Date
December 1, 1963
Accession Number
NFB63-9694
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Collection
CMCP collection
Credit Line
© National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Caption
Malcolm Thomson, reflected in fused quartz mirror, talks with telescope's designer, George Brealey.
Date
October 1, 1963
Accession Number
NFB63-9163
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Collection
CMCP collection
Credit Line
© National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Caption
Engineer-astronomers adjust north-pointing telescope. Building sections roll back at touch of button.
Date
October 1, 1963
Accession Number
NFB63-9165
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Collection
CMCP collection
Credit Line
© National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Caption
Malcolm Thomson, chief of positional astronomy, sights through one of many recording devices on telescope.
Date
October 1, 1963
Accession Number
NFB63-9164
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Collection
CMCP collection
Credit Line
© National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Photostory #357: Majestic Motions of Universe Scientifically Recorded: Canada's New Star Fixer Amazingly Accurate
Photographers
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
February 11, 1964
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
Slicing sidereal time into fantastically thin slices, a revolutionary Canadian telescope is fixing the stars in the heavens with greater accuracy than ever before. Designed and built at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa, the Mirror Transit Telescope is a complex of servo-mechanisms, electronics and special recording cameras. Its twin north-and-south pointing telescopes are rigidly aligned along the meridian on massive concrete foundations. Into these telescopes the light from stars being observed is reflected by [an 11]-inch-diameter fused quartz mirror which is flat to within one-tenth of a wavelength of visible light. Operated by remote control so that the body heat of an attendant astronomer will not interfere with its extraordinary precision, the mirror transit telescope is photo-graphically recording data of vital importance in the fields of astrophysics, celestial navigation, missile guidance, space travel and the determination of time to an incredible exactness. Canada's new star fixer is providing the nation's scientists with a leading place in the specialized realm of positional astronomy, is a technological triumph of Canadian ingenuity.
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