John Brashear

It's been a while since I've written anything here. If anyone is following this blog, my apologies. (I suspect no one in their right mind is reading any of this, but I'm not exactly in my right mind either. I'm more of a lefty...)

Having recently been up at Lick again, I've been thinking of telescope makers. John Brashear's efforts don't get the same accolades the Clarks do, but his telescopes were equally good (and his instruments, like micrometers, spectroscopes, and astrographs had excellent reputations). I read Brashear's autobiography many years ago and found some great resources online:

For a wonderful set of links about the man & his scopes:

http://johnbrashear.tripod.com/

For a digital, online version of his autobiography:
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-idx?c=pitttext&view=toc&idno=00c867671m

And if you ever get to Oakland, California and want to look through a 20-inch refractor, Chabot Observatory offers viewing through an 8-inch Clark refractor, the 20-inch, and a 36-inch reflector:

http://www.chabotspace.org/observatories.htm