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Hartwell was the observatory of John Lee (1783-1866) and was used by
him and also by Captain W.H. Smyth (1788-1865) from 1839 to 1859.
Hartwell was assigned Minor Planet Observatory code 997. It is
described in detail in the book "Notices of the manor and Mansion of
Hartwell" by Smyth, published in 1851, now available via the Internet
Archive
here.
Credit ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Caption
Hartwell House and Observatory. This country house is located in
Buckinghamshire, England. The main house has a Jacobean north facade
(seen here) and dates from the early 17th century. The observatory
(domed structure at left) was built in the 1830s by the British amateur
astronomer John Lee (1783-1866). It was in the library here that the
British Meteorological Society was founded in 1850. Hartwell House
chapel is seen down an avenue of trees at right. This lithograph is from
a collection made by Hannah Jackson-Gwilt, a niece of Joseph Gwilt and
daughter of George Gwilt, both
fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society. The observatory was
demolished some time ago, but
floor plans are shown in Smyth's book and reproduced here with the
measurement in feet extended to the length of the building:
Using a GoogleEarth image of the present Hartwell House (imagery date
2018) and overlaying an appropriately scaled version of the observatory
floor plan, the coordinates of the transit telescope and equatorial
telescope have been re-measured.
It is expected that the MPC code 997 was issued for the sake of the measurements
made at the transit telescope and its coordinates are measured as:
Longitude 000° 50' 46.6" W, 51° 48' 18.0" N, height 83 m (ground level),
3 m (height of transit instrument) |
