General Information

Serial #

B092585

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Unknown

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

21.0 cm

Width

47.0 cm

Height

15.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Television

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Tektronix

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Oregon

City

Beaverton

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

circa 1980+

Canada

An instrument used at the David Dunlap Observatory at the University of Toronto, one of Canada's most important astronomical observatories. The David Dunlap Observatory opened in 1935 as the result of a bequest from the wife of David Dunlap. The telescope was a 74 inch (188 cm) reflector built by Grubb Parsons of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. The 74 inch was then the largest telescope in Canada (surpassing the 72 inch telescope of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria) and became the second largest in the world after the 100 inch Hooker Telescope of the Mt. Wilson Observatory outside Los Angeles. DDO's reputation grew and following WWII, it began to graduate most of the astronomers produced in Canada with University of Western Ontario far behind. Beginning in the 1960s a number of other astronomy departments were created but UofT/DDO held its place, a position it probably still holds. The DDO had a good technical staff which gave them an advantage and, with most of the 1940s to early 1970s top astronomers coming from UofT, grants from NRC and then ENSERC were almost guaranteed and allowed UofT's top astronomers -- Hogg, van den Berg, Fernie, Bolton, Kamper, Martin, etc. to acquire or build some of the best equipment available in university observatories. For optical observatories, only the DAO had technical staff and budgets that surpassed those of DDO. In 2007, citing increasing light pollution, the University of Toronto announced plans to sell the Observatory property. In June 2008, it was sold to Corsica Development Inc., a subsidiary of Metrus Development Inc. and the Observatory was closed. In 2009 the Observatory buildings and 80% of the site were designated a cultural heritage landscape. Also in 2009 Corsica and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre announced an agreement allowing the RASC to provide public education and outreach programs at the observatory, and to operate the 188 cm telescope.

Function

A device used to display data from a polarimeter in an astronomical observatory.

Technical

A display unit used with a a polarimeter [2008.0194] designed circa 1980 by Dr. Peter Martin as a scaled down prototype for one built for the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mt. Kea in Hawaii. It was tested at DDO and the design proved to be good; the full sized model was completed and used at the CFHT for several years. Once decommissioned there, it was transferred to the Observatoire Mt. Megantic in the Eastern Townships of Quebec where it is used by Dr. Pierre Bastienne. Data was coded on paper tape and this Tektromix monitor model 604 [2008.0195] provided the means to read the code.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Black lettering on front reads '604 MONITOR/ TEKTRONIX, INC.'/ Black lettering on back reads 'TEKTRONIX, INC./ BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A.' and 'SERIAL/ B092585' THIS INST IS MFD. UNDER ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING/ U.S. PATS: 3,207,936; 3,275,838; 3,562,464. OTHER PATS./ PEND. THIS INST MAY ALSO BE COVERED BY ONE OR/ MORE FOREIGN PATS. NUMBERS PROVIDED ON REQUEST/ PATENT NOTICE TEKTRONIX'/ Black lettering for control functions

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Textured turquoise finish on casing sides, top, underside/ Light grey synthetic casing front with colourless transparent glass over orange screen/ Light grey synthetic and metallic grey metal back/ Black controls, feet and parts/ Light grey synthetic cord and parts

Decoration

Raised Tektronix logo on front