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Meudon Great Refractor

Double telescopesGreat refractorsOptical telescopesParis Observatory
Grande Coupole de Meudon
Grande Coupole de Meudon

Meudon Great Refractor (also known as the Grande Lunette) is a double telescope with lenses (83 cm + 62 cm), in Meudon, France. It is a twin refracting telescope built in 1891, with one visual and one photographic, on a single square-tube together on an equatorial mount, inside a dome. The Refractor was built for the Meudon Observatory, and is the largest double doublet (twin achromat) refracting telescope in Europe, but about the same size as several telescopes in this period, when this style of telescope was popular. Other large telescopes of a similar type include the James Lick telescope (91.4), Potsdam Great Refractor (80+50 cm), and the Greenwich 28 inch refractor (71.1 cm). Institutionally it was part of the Meudon Observatory, which later became integrated with the Paris observatory. The Great Refractor was used for research well into the 1980s, after nearly a century of use. In the 21st century it was renovated and re-opened for public outreach. The telescope is noted for being used to disprove the theory of Martian canals, which was a popular story in the late 19th century. The telescope lenses were made by the Henry Brothers, and the mounting was made by Gautier.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Meudon Great Refractor (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Meudon Great Refractor
Rampe de Trivaux, Boulogne-Billancourt

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Wikipedia: Meudon Great RefractorContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 48.80502401 ° E 2.23106442 °
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Milan Rastislav Stefanik

Rampe de Trivaux
92190 Boulogne-Billancourt, Fleury
Ile-de-France, France
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Grande Coupole de Meudon
Grande Coupole de Meudon
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Château de Meudon
Château de Meudon

Meudon Castle, also known as the Royal Castle of Meudon or Imperial Palace of Meudon, is a French castle located in Meudon in the Hauts-de-Seine department. At the edge of a wooded plateau, the castle offers views of Paris and the Seine, as well as of the Chalais valley. Located between Paris and Versailles, in the heart of a hunting reserve, the castle has an ideal topography for large gardens. It had many successive owners from the Renaissance until the fall of the Second French Empire. It should not be confused with the Bellevue Castle, also located in Meudon. Famous past residents include: Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Duchess of Étampes; the Cardinal of Lorraine, Abel Servien; François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois and Louis, Grand Dauphin, also known as Monseigneur, who linked the Chaville Castle to Meudon Castle. The Château-Vieux (Old Castle) burned down in 1795 and was rebuilt as the Château-Neuf (New Castle), which in turn burned down in 1871. Demolition was considered, but most of the castle was preserved and became an observatory with an astronomical telescope in 1878 and was then attached to the Observatory of Paris in 1927. The castle of Meudon has been classified as a historical monument since 12 April, 1972. Hangar Y in the Chalais-Meudon park has been classified as an historical monument since 4 June 2000. It was the first storage facility for aerostats in the world and is one of the few still standing.