The Yapp telescope 36-inch reflecting telescope

The Yapp telescope, a 36-inch (3 foot - approx. 91.44 cm) reflecting telescope and spectroscope of the United Kingdom, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. On 13 March 1931, the cigarette manufacturer, William Johnstone Yapp offered to present the Observatory with a large telescope as an appreciation of the personal work of the Astronomer Royal, Frank Dyson. After careful consideration it was decided to order a 36-inch reflector with a spectroscope and a new 34-foot dome at a cost of £15, 000.It was ordered from Grubb Parsons in 1931 by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and installed in a new dome building there. With a reflecting mirror 36 inches wide (91 cm) and a focal length of 4.57 meters (15 ft), it was the largest telescope in use at the Observatory in Greenwich until the late 1950s. The mirror disc was cast by the Parsons Optical Glass Co. of Derby. It is 6 inches thick, has a 7-inch hole in the centre and weighs 550 lb. The telescope became known as the Yapp 36-inch Reflector and was the largest telescope at the Observatory until the opening of the 98-inch Isaac Newton Telescope at Herstmonceux in 1967.Mothballed during the Second World War, the telescope was brought back into use at Greenwich in 1946. It was dismantled at the end of 1955 and later taken to Herstmonceux where it was eventually re-erected in dome B and brought back into use in August 1958. The telescope is still at Herstmonceux and is currently in the care of the The Observatory Science Centre

Astronomer Dyson Greenwich Grubb Herstmonceux Isaac Johnstone Observatory Optical Parsons Reflecting Reflector Spectroscope Telescope Yapp

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