74 inch Radcliffe

The 1.9 metres (75in) Radcliffe telescope was commissioned for the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria and was operated between 1948 and 1972. In 1972 it was moved to Sutherland. Between 1951 and 2004 in was the largest telescope in South Africa.

The mirror blank for the 74 inch.

The 74 inch Telescope in the observatory.

Many thanks to Gordon Moir for the following images of the telescope......

For video of the telescope see: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=37112

For further information on this telescope please see: http://assa.saao.ac.za/html/his-tel-radcliffe-1_9m.html

An excellent account of the Radcliffe Telescope can be found here: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1989QJRAS..30...33G&defaultprint=YES&filetype=.pdf