In this figure ABCD represent the tube of the 6 inch telescope, CD, the plate object-glass, F the first focus of rays, de the fluid concave lens, distant from the former 24 inches. The focal length MF being 48, and consequently, as 48 : 6 :: 24 : 3 inches, the diameter of the fluid lens. The resulting compound focus is 62.5 inches. It is obvious, therefore, that the rays df, ef, arrive at the focus under the same convergency, and with the same light as if they proceeded from a lens of 6 inches diameter, placed at a distance beyond the object-glass CD (as GH,) determined by producing those rays till they meet the sides of the tube in GH, namely at 62.5 inches beyond the fluid lens. Hence, it is obvious, the rays will converge as they would do from an object-glass GH of the usual kind with a focus of 10 feet 5 inches. We have thus, therefore, shortened the tube 38.5 inches, or have at least the advantage of a focus 38.5 inches longer than our tube; and the same principle may be carried much farther, so as to reduce the usual length of refracting telescopes nearly one half without increasing the aberration in the first glass beyond the least that can possibly belong to a telescope of the usual kind of the whole length. It should likewise be observed that the adjustment for focus may be made either in the usual way, or by a slight movement of the fluid lens, as in the Gregorian Reflectors, by means of the small speculum.
Mr. Barlow afterwards constructed another and a larger telescope on the same principle, the clear aperture of which is 7.8 inches. Its tube is 11 feet, which, together with the eye-piece, makes the whole length 12 feet, but its effective focus is on the principle stated above, 18 feet. It carries a power of 700 on the closest double stars in South’s and Herschel’s catalogue, and the stars are, with that power, round and defined, although the field is not then so bright as could be desired. The telescope is mounted on a revolving stand, which works with considerable accuracy as an azimuth and altitude instrument. To give steadiness to the stand it has been made substantial and heavy; its weight by estimation being 400 pounds, and that of the telescope 130 pounds, yet its motions are so smooth, and the power so arranged, that it may be managed by one person with the greatest ease, the star being followed by a slight touch, scarcely exceeding that of the keys of a piano-forte. The focal length of the plate lens is 78 inches, and of the fluid lens 59.8 inches—which at the distance of 40 inches produce a focal length of 104 inches, a total length of 12 feet, and an equivalent focus of 18 feet. The curves of the parallel meniscus checks for containing the fluid are—30 inches, and 144 inches, the latter towards the eye. The curves for the plate lens are 56.4 and 144. There is an interior tube 5 inches diameter, and 3 feet 6 inches long, which carries the cell in which the fluid is enclosed, and an apparatus by which it may be moved backwards and forwards, so that the proper adjustment may be made for colour, in the first instance, and afterwards the focus is obtained by the usual rack-work motion. The following is the mode by which the fluid was enclosed. After the best position has been determined practically for the checks forming the fluid lens, these, with the ring between them ground and polished accurately to the same curves, are applied together, and taken into an artificial high temperature, exceeding the greatest at which the telescope is ever expected to be used. After remaining here with the fluid some time, the space between the glasses is completely filled, immediately closed, cooled down by evaporation, and removed into a lower temperature. By this means a sudden condensation takes place, an external pressure is brought on the checks, and a bubble formed inside, which is of course filled with the vapour of the fluid; the excess of the atmospheric pressure beyond that of the vapour being afterwards always acting externally to prevent contact. The extreme edges are then sealed with the serum of human blood, or by strong fish-glue, and some thin pliable metal surface. By this process, Mr. Barlow says, ‘I have every reason to believe the lens becomes as durable as any lens of solid glass. At all events I have the satisfaction of stating, that my first 3 inch telescope has now been completed more than fifteen months, and that no change whatever has taken place in its performance, nor the least perceptible alteration either in the quantity or the quality of the fluid.’
The following are some of the observations which have been made with this telescope, and the tests to which it has been subjected. The very small star which accompanies the pole-star is generally one of the first tests applied to telescopes. This small point of light appeared brilliant and distinct; it was best seen with a power of 120, but was visible with a power of 700. The small star in Aldebaran was very distinct with a power of 120. The small star α Lyræ was distinctly visible with the same power. The small star called by Sir J. Herschel Debilissima, between 4 ε and 5 Lyræ, whose existence, he says, could not be suspected in either the 5 or 7 feet equatorial, and invisible also with the 7 and 10 feet reflectors of six and 9 inches aperture, but seen double with the 20 feet reflector, is seen very satisfactorily double with this telescope. η Persei, marked as double in South and Herschel’s catalogue, at the distance of 28´´, with another small star at the distance of 3´ 67´´, is seen distinctly sixfold, four of the small stars being within a considerably less distance than the remote one of η marked in the catalogue. And, rejecting the remote star, the principal, and the four other stars, form a miniature representation of Jupiter and his satellites, three of them being nearly in a line on one side, and the other on the opposite. Castor, is distinctly double with 120, and well opened and stars perfectly round with 360 and 700: γ Leonis and α Piscium are seen with the same powers equally round and distinct. In ε Bootis, the small star is well separated from the larger, and its blue colour well marked with a power of 360. η Coronæ Borealis is seen double with a power of 360 and 700. 52 Orionis, ζ Orionis, and others of the same class are also well defined with the same powers. In regard to the planets which happened to be visible—Venus appeared beautifully white and well defined with a power of 120, but showed some colour with 360. Saturn with the 120 power, is a very brilliant object, the double ring and belts being well and satisfactorily defined, and with the 360 power, it is still very fine. The moon also is remarkably beautiful, the edges and the shadows being well marked, while the quantity of light is such as to bring to view every minute distinction of figure and shade.
The principal objections that may be made to this construction of a telescope are such as these:—Can the fluid be permanently secured? Will it preserve its transparency and other optical properties? Will it not act upon the surface of the glass and partially destroy it? &c. To such enquiries Mr. Barlow replies, that experience is the only test we have; our spirit levels, spirit thermometers, &c., show that some fluids at least may be preserved for many years, without experiencing any change, and without producing any in the appearance of the glass tubes containing them. But should any of these happen, except the last, nothing can be more simple than to supply the means of replacing the fluid at any time, and by any person, without disturbing the adjustment of the telescope. He expresses his hope that, should these experiments be prosecuted, an achromatic telescope may ultimately be produced which shall exceed in aperture and power, any instruments of the kind hitherto attempted. If the prejudice against the use of fluids could be removed, he feels convinced that well-directed practice would soon lead to the construction of the most perfect instruments, on this principle, at a comparatively small expense. ‘I am convinced,’ he says, ‘judging from what has been paid for large object-glasses, that my telescope, telescope stand, and the building for observation, with every other requisite convenience, have been constructed for a less sum than would be demanded for the object-glass only, if one could be produced of the same diameter of plate and flint-glass; and this is a consideration which should have some weight, and encourage a perseverance in the principle of construction.’[24]
ROGERS’ ACHROMATIC TELESCOPE ON A NEW PLAN.
The object of this construction is to render a small disc of flint-glass available to perform the office of compensation to a much larger one of crown-glass, and thus to render possible the construction of telescopes of much larger aperture than are now common, without hindrance from the difficulty at present experienced in procuring large discs of flint-glass. It is well known to those who are acquainted with telescopes, that in the construction of an ordinary achromatic object-glass, in which a single crown lens is compensated by a single one of flint, the two lenses admit of being separated only by an interval too small to afford any material advantage, in diminishing the diameter of the flint lens, by placing it in a narrower part of the cone of rays—the actual amount of their difference in point of dispersive power being such as to render the correction of the chromatic aberration impossible, when their mutual distance exceeds a certain limit. This inconvenience Mr. Rogers proposes to obviate, by employing, as a correcting lens—not a single lens of flint, but a compound one consisting of a convex crown and concave flint, whose foci are such as to cause their combination to act as a plain glass on the mean refrangible rays. Then it is evident, that by means of the greater dispersive power of flint than of crown glass, this will act as a concave on the violet, and as a convex on the red rays, and that the more powerfully, according as the lenses separately have greater powers or curvature. If then, such a compound lens be interposed between the object-glass of a telescope—supposed to be a single lens of plate or crown-glass—and its focus, it will cause no alteration in the focus for mean rays, while it will lengthen the focus for violet, and shorten it for red rays. Now this is precisely what is wanted to produce an achromatic union of all the rays in the focus; and as nothing in this construction limits the powers of the individual correcting lenses, they may therefore be applied any where that convenience may dictate; and thus, theoretically speaking, a disc of flint-glass, however small, may be made to correct the colour of one of crown however large.
This construction, likewise, possesses other and very remarkable advantages. For, first, when the correcting lens is approximately constructed on a calculation founded on its intended aperture, and on the refractive and dispersive indices of its materials, the final and complete dispersion of colour may be effected, not by altering the lenses by grinding them anew, but by shifting the combination nearer to, or farther from, the object-glass, as occasion may require, along the tube of a telescope, by a screw motion, till the condition of achromaticity is satisfied in the best manner possible. And secondly, the spherical aberration may in like manner be finally corrected, by slightly separating the lenses of the correcting glass, whose surfaces should for this purpose be figured to curvatures previously determined by calculation, to admit of this mode of correction—a condition which Mr. Rogers finds to be always possible. The following is the rule he lays down for the determination of the foci of the lenses of the correcting glass:—‘The focal length of either lens of the correcting lens is to that of the object-glass, in a ratio compounded of the ratio of the square of the aperture of the correcting lens to that of the object-glass, and of the ratio of the difference of the dispersive indices of the crown and flint glass, to the dispersive index of crown.’ For example, to correct the colour of a lens of crown or plate glass of 9 inches aperture, and 14 feet focal length (the dimensions of the telescope of Fraunhofer at Dorpat) by a disc of flint glass 3 inches in diameter, the focus of either lens of the correcting lens will require to be about 9 inches. To correct it by a 4 inch disc will require a focus of about 16 inches each.
Mr. Rogers remarks, that it is not indispensable to make the correcting glass act as a plane lens. It is sufficient if it be so adjusted as to have a shorter focus for red rays than for violet. If, preserving this condition, it be made to act as a concave lens, the advantage procured by Mr. Barlow’s construction of reducing the length of the telescope with the same focal power, is secured, and he considers, moreover, that by a proper adaptation of the distances, foci, &c., of the lenses, we might hope to combine with all these advantages that of the destruction of the secondary spectrum, and thus obtain a perfect telescope.
The above is an abstract of a paper read to the ‘Astronomical Society of London’ in April 1828, by A. Rogers, Esq.
The reader will easily perceive that the principle on which Mr. Rogers proposes to construct his telescope is very nearly similar to that of professor Barlow, described above, with this difference, that the correcting lens of the Professor’s telescope is composed of a transparent fluid, while that of Mr. Rogers is a solid lens consisting of a convex crown and concave flint. The general object intended to be accomplished by both is the same, namely, to make a correcting lens of a comparatively small diameter serve the purpose of a large disc of flint glass, which has hitherto been very expensive, and very difficult to be procured; and likewise to reduce the length of the telescope while the advantage of a long focal power is secured.—A telescope, on this principle, was constructed 7 or 8 years ago by Mr. Wilson, lecturer on Philosophy and Chemistry, Glasgow, before he was aware that Mr. Rogers had proposed a similar plan. I have had an opportunity of particularly inspecting Mr. Wilson’s telescope, and trying its effects on terrestrial objects with high powers, and was on the whole highly pleased with its performance. It appeared to be almost perfectly achromatic, and produced a distinct and well-defined image of minute distant objects, such as small letters on sign-posts, at 2, 3 and 4 miles distant. But I had no opportunity of trying its effects on double stars or any other celestial objects. The instrument is above 6 feet long; the object lens is a plano-convex of crown glass 4 feet focal distance, and 4 inches diameter, the plain side next the object.