A Historic Clark Telescope Receives a New Lease on Life

Abstract

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the wealthy Bostonian oligarch, Percival Lowell, established a grand Observatory atop Mars Hill, Flagstaff, Arizona, some 7250 feet above sea level. Here, in 1894, Lowell had installed a magnificent 24 inch refracting telescope, built by the famous American telescope maker, Alvan Clark & Sons. Fast forward more than a century after Lowell”s death, the telescope has been refurbished and will wows the public with spectacular views of the night sky (Fig. 24.1).