The observatory in Herstmonceux, run by The Observatory Science Centre, may close within the next two years. The Canadian landlords Queen’s University who own the Castle, are not renewing their lease.
This site contains most of the remaining instruments and buildings of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, a 400+-year old British science institution. The historic museum of the RGO, in Greenwich, is its other remnant. Greenwich has one remaining former RGO telescope for public viewing. Herstmonceux have three.
Herstmonceux is where the first stellar mass black hole was visually identified. Patrick Moore, Stephen Hawking, the astrophysicist Donald-Lynden Bell are all closely associated with the site. It was the home of the largest telescope in Western Europe.
Herstmonceux Volunteer Ian Whiteley writes of ‘The Scope that Proved Einstein Right’….
“All of the historical telescopes at Herstmonceux have amazing stories behind them, but perhaps none more than the 13″ astrographic in Dome D. In 1919, the main (objective) lens from this telescope was used on a photographic expedition to Sobral in Brazil.
At the time, Einstein’s General Relativity theory was viewed with suspicion even by other physicists. Sir Arthur Eddington, Director of Cambridge Observatory, and Sir Frank Watson Dyson, Astronomer Royal, realised there was a way to prove, once and for all, whether Einstein was right.
In Brazil, the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 would occur just as the sun was crossing the bright Hyades star cluster. By measuring the deflection when the stars were close to the Sun during eclipse and comparing it to the same stars’ positions at night the gravity-related shift could be calculated.
There would be two expeditions, one to Sobral and the other to the small island of Principe, lying off the west coast of Africa near Equatorial Guinea. The 13-inch lens from the Oxford astrographic telescope (now in Dome F at the observatory) would travel to Principe, while the 13-inch lens from the telescope now in Dome D would be taken to Sobral. Casings and mounts would be built for both lenses in situ.
The formal announcement came in November 1919. The expeditions had proved Einstein right. The Sun bent light just as he had predicted and Einstein’s theory that gravity was the result of the curvature of 4-dimensional spacetime became embedded in modern physics.
The next morning, Einstein, until then a relatively obscure newcomer in theoretical physics, was on the front page of major newspapers around the world. He was an overnight celebrity.
The London Times of 7 November 1919 carried a long article headlined ’REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE. NEW THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE’. Two days later, the New York Times appeared with the headline ’LIGHTS ALL ASKEW IN THE HEAVENS.’
We know the scope is Grade 2* protected, but imagine if, due to a lack of public access and an inability to spend the necessary funds to keep this scope in working order, it was allowed to slowly decay. Imagine the loss to British science history.”
When the working observatory closed in 1990, there were plans to turn the site into a golf course. The instruments in the domes were left to slowly decay. Only the campaigning work of Patrick Moore and others saved the site.
Since then, the telescopes and buildings have been refurbished and three of the historical instruments returned to working order.
Hundreds of visitors over the past 29 years since the OSC opened have viewed the stars and planets through them. And every year, the OSC Astronomy Festival attracts some of the UK’s foremost astronomy communicators as speakers, as well as astronomy enthusiasts from all over the country.
It is a very special place.