General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

4

Total Parts

4

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic casing, ball, control, cable, parts/ Metal wiring and parts

Dimensions

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

Length

11.5 cm

Width

6.2 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

3.5 cm

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Computing Technology

Category

Digital peripheral devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Unknown

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Circa 2000+

Canada

A piece of equipment 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 handheld computer input device, that, when rolled across a flat surface causes the computer cursor to move in a corresponding way on the display screen.

Technical

A computer peripheral used with a circa 2000 personal computer. The latter was probably used with an astronomical measuring engine, the Perkin-Elmer PDS machine. This was a device for digitally measuring photographs, used to measure both stellar and galactic spectra as well as direct images of the sky taken with the DDOs 74 inch telescope and plates acquired by Sidney Van de Burgh at the 48 inch Mt. Palomar Schmidt telescope.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Grey lettering on top reads 'Microsoft'/ Label on underside has been scratched off

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Textured buff coloured casing and cable with green synthetic connector/ Grey scroll button/ Plated connector part

Decoration

N/A