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Ready to see the stars again

St. Joseph's now has a state-of-the-art astronomical observatory, which brings back memories of a telescope the college had acquired over 60 years ago. ANAND SANKAR digs up some fascinating bits of history associated with it

PHOTOS: BHAGYA PRAKASH K. AND St. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE MAGAZINE

FAR-SIGHTED APPROACH The new, sophisticated telescope (top) has a GPS system and a CCD camera. But the observatory at the old campus (above left) still has a special place in Josephites' hearts even though the new one (above right) is modern Photos: Bhagya Prakash K. and St. Joseph's College magazine

The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.

Johannes Kepler

Mysterium Cosmographicum

All of us at some point or the other have looked at the night sky and wondered... And a lucky few among us get a pair of binoculars to take a closer look. A luckier few actually get to use a telescope. Now, the students of St. Joseph's College of Arts and Sciences can consider themselves the luckiest as the observatory at the college has been revived and will be equipped with a new state-of-the-art telescope.

St. Joseph's once had the distinction of being the only college in the city to have an astronomical observatory with a fully functional telescope on its campus on Residency Road. But when the college shifted to its new building at Langford Road, the components of the observatory and the telescope were lost. Though the dome of the observatory was moved and installed, it remained an empty shell.

Owner's pride

Now the college is looking to get its pride of place in Bangalore back, with some help from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The college offers a course on Space Sciences in collaboration with ISRO, and so, the space organisation helped them purchase a new telescope and refurbish the observatory to suit modern research standards.

The new telescope is an eight-inch reflector made by a company called Meade and imported from California. According to astronomers, it comes with all the bells and whistles needed for normal observation and serious research. Its two most important features are a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a charge coupled device (CCD) camera. The telescope can use the GPS to align itself, thus saving a lot of time, and the digital camera enables high-resolution photographs to be directly saved to a computer for study. Though its resolving power might not be high, it is said that this is the most feature-packed telescope in Bangalore.

Any Josephite will remember the silver observatory dome on top of the college. But the new dome, constructed with ISRO expertise, has been painted white with coatings to prevent the entry of water and stray light. Also it is fully motorised.

Though the developments might be the beginning of something new for the college, the old observatory had a special place in the hearts of Josephites. And there is a fascinating history behind it, which took some searching to uncover. The procurer, someone now just known as H.S.R in the college's 1938-39 magazine, best narrates the story.

H.S.R writes that the decision to finally buy a telescope for the college was taken in 1937 though attempts were made much earlier to procure one: "A few years ago, Major Clarke, a philosopher, living on a lonely hill seven miles from Bangalore, left a fairly large legacy to his butler, in the shape of some valuable articles which no butler has any chance of using in his lifetime. The college administration negotiated, at once, for the purchase of Major Clarke's library, a theodolite (a three-inch solar telescope) and a six-inch refractor telescope. Unfortunately, the last article was left out of the deal... About August 1937, the Rev. Father Principal showed me a list of telescopes then available in London and left it to me to make the proper choice. My joy at this sudden stroke of luck really knew no bounds."

The five-and-a-half-inch refractor telescope then purchased was a beauty by any standards. The tube was eight feet long, made of brass, and attached to it was a short brass rod called the polar axis, which pointed constantly towards the Pole Star. But soon the college realised that an observatory was needed to make full use of the telescope and constructing one was an "adventure". H.S.R gives credit to one S. Narayana Rao for constructing the silver dome and writes in his praise: "Luckily, under his able guidance building and engineering difficulties seem to vanish."

The observatory was formally inaugurated in January 1939. Its most brilliant aspect was the sidereal clock, manufactured by Dent, clockmakers to the King of England. Dent Clockmakers, founded by the legendary Edward John Dent, also built the Big Ben in London besides making clocks for the Royal Navy and East India Company.

The sidereal clock is special because it displays star time and is used to keep telescopes pointed at the stars irrespective of the earth's rotation. The dome was synced to the clock and rotated using a specially engineered set of gears and ball bearings. Thus, if a camera was attached to the telescope, one could take photographs of the night sky without any blurring, as the telescope would follow the stars on the horizon.

Literature and telescope

For years the college astronomy club used the telescope to study sunspots, planetary motion and comets. But one Fr. Devasahayam, who taught literature, interestingly used it while teaching Bertolt Brecht's famous play Galileo.

"He was well versed in astronomy and used to operate the telescope himself. When he taught Galileo, he took us up to the observatory. It was my first encounter with the telescope and it was just like being Galileo. Back in the 1970s when I studied, a telescope was still quite a spectacle!" recalls Prof. Jerome Nirmal Raj of the Political Science Department.

Another aspect that Josephites stress upon is the fact that the old observatory was open to researchers from outside the college as well, and keeping the tradition alive, even the new telescope will be open to serious researchers.

(The new telescope and observatory will be formally inaugurated on August 5.)

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