A Tale of Two Telescopes: North Queensland and the 1882 Transit of Venus

The Brisbane Astronomical Society (1896 to 1917), Its Six-inch Refractor, and Key Members Dudley Eglinton and James Park Thomson

“…At this time, of all Australian astronomers, amateur and professional, Tebbutt had by far the most impressive international record when it came to publications and research (Orchiston, 2017), and his telescope also was significantly larger than Stanley's, so we cannot use him as the obvious 'role model' for Stanley. Nonetheless, a 6-inch refractor was capable of doing good work if placed in the right hands, and Davidson, for one, was able to demonstrate this (Orchiston & Darlington, 2017).…”

“…However, there is no evidence that he observed the 1874 or 1882 transits of Venus, both of which were well publicised (Lomb, 2011;Orchiston, 2004). In 1882, south-eastern Queensland was covered by clouds on the vital day (Orchiston & Darlington, 2017).…”

“…To place Stanley's 6-inch telescope in perspective, in November 1894 it was the equal-largest refracting telescope in Queensland. The late Edwin Norris (1829-1892) of Townsville and J. Ewen Davidson (1841Davidson ( -1923 of Branscombe (near Mackay) also had 6-inch Cooke refractors housed in observatories (see Orchiston & Darlington, 2017). Davidson's telescope returned to England in 1900 when he retired, but the other two 6-inch telescopes were only surpassed in aperture in 1918 when Dr W. E. McFarlane (1866McFarlane ( -1919) purchased a 7-inch Cooke refractor that he installed in an observatory at Irvinebank a tinmining town on the Atherton Tableland (Orchiston, 1985(Orchiston, , 1997b.…”