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The 28 inch refractor housed at the Greenwich observatory was made by Sir Howard Grubb of Dublin 1893. The instrument is still in place and open to public view.
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In 1852 the Reverend Mr.John Craig with the help of various engineers including William Gravatt, built the world’s largest refracting telescope on Wandsworth Common in London.
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Completed in 1721, John Hadley an English mathematician and astronomer was the first to create a parabolic mirror for a Gregorian 6" reflector with virtually no spherical aberration.
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Willam Herschel (1738 - 1822) with the help of his sister, Caroline, who joined him in England in 1772, began experimenting with making mirrors and building reflecting telescopes.
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The William Herschel 40-foot telescope, known also as the Great Forty-Foot reflecting telescope, was constructed between 1785 and 1789 at the home of the astronomer, "Observatory House" in Slough, England.
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Constructed by the Scottish instrument maker John Ramage of Aberdeen, the telescope had a focal length of 25 feet and speculum mirror of 15 inch diameter and was installed in the Observatory’s Courtyard at Greenwich by Ramage in the winter of 1825/6.
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William Lassell (1799-1880) was born in Bolton in 1799 and became an amateur astronomer and telescope maker. His 48-inch f/9.4 open tube Newtonian mount reflector in the grounds of his Liverpool villa was at the time Englands largest telescope.
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The telescope was made by Grubb Parsons following a £15,000 gift from the industrialist William Johnston Yapp in 1932, and was installed at the Greenwich Observatory Christie enclosure in 1934 until 1955.
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The Leviathan of Parsonstown as it became known, was the work of William Parsons, an amateur astronomer and the third Earl of Rosse on the Birr Castle estate. At its time of construction in 1845, the leviathan became the largest telescope in the world for well over fifty years.
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Spaceflight
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Black Arrow, a three stage satellite launcher was the only UK rocket to place a satellite, Prospero, into near earth orbit, where it remains until this day.
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ELDO (European Launcher Development Organisation) was established to provide a European satellite launch facility. ELDO members were Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia
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Project Mustard (Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device) or MUSTARD, was a 1960’s design concept from the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) able to place payloads of up to 5000lb (2,300 kg) into low earth orbit and stood some 118 feet (36 m) tall.
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Britain is believed to be at the beginning of a new space age. From the late 1940’s until the early 1970’s Britain remained at the forefront of rocket technology.
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