List of largest optical refracting telescopes

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Here is a list of the largest optical refracting telescopes sorted by lens diameter and focal length.

The largest refractor ever constructed was French: an instrument sporting two interchangeable objective lenses (for visual and photographic use respectively) 1.25 m (49.2 inches) in diameter, with a focal length of 57 m (187 ft). It was on display at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Due to the extreme focal length it was stationary. The telescope was aimed with the aid of a Foucault siderostat, a movable plane mirror 2 m (6.56 feet) in diameter, mounted in a large cast-iron frame. The horizontal steel tube was 60 m (197 feet) long; for focusing, the telescope’s eyepiece/plate end could be shifted five feet on rails. With the lowest power—500x—the field of view was 3 arc minutes. Due to its unfortunate location—right within the metropolis—and trouble with the siderostat, the results were poor and not suited for scientific use. When the year-long exposition was over, its builders were unable to sell it. It was ultimately broken up for scrap; the lenses are still stored away at the Paris Observatory.

Observatory Location Lens diameter Focal length Built Comments
Paris 1900 Exposition Paris, France 1.25 m 57 m 1900 Fixed lens, total failure, scrapped.
Yerkes Observatory Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA 1.02 m 19.4 m 1897  
Swedish Solar Telescope,
Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
La Palma 1 m 15 m 2002 Adaptive optics corrected refractor telescope
Lick Observatory Mount Hamilton, California, USA 0.91 m 17.6 m 1888  
Paris Observatory Meudon, France 0.83 m + 0.62 m 16.2 m 1891 Double telescope
Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam Potsdam, Germany 0.80 m + 0.50 m 12.0 m 1899 Double telescope
Côte d'Azur Observatory Nice, France 0.76 m 17.9 m 1887  
Allegheny Observatory Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA 0.76 m 14.1 m 1914  
Pulkovo observatory Saint Petersburg, Russia 0.76 m  ? 1885 The telescope was destroyed during the Siege of Leningrad, only the lens (made by Alvan Clark & Sons) survives.
Royal Greenwich Observatory Greenwich, London, United Kingdom 0.71 m 8.5 m 1894  
Vienna Observatory Vienna, Austria 0.69 m 10.5 m 1878  
Archenhold Observatory Berlin, Germany 0.68 m 21 m 1896  
McCormick Observatory Charlottesville, Virginia, USA 0.67 m 9.9 m 1883  
U.S. Naval Observatory Washington, DC, USA 0.66 m 9.9 m 1873  
Royal Greenwich Observatory Greenwich, London, United Kingdom 0.66 m 6.8 m 1897  
Yale Southern Station Johannesburg, South Africa 0.66 m 10.8 m 1925 Yale-Columbia Refractor moved to Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1952, same telescope as following entry
Mount Stromlo Observatory Mount Stromlo, Australia 0.66 m 10.8 m 1925 Yale-Columbia Refractor - Previously located in South Africa. Relocated to Australia in 1952. Destroyed by bush fire on January 18, 2003[1]. Some of the wreckage used to create a science sculpture at Questacon.
Belgrade Observatory Belgrade, Yugoslavia 0.65 m 10.55 m   Same instrument as at the Berlin Observatory
Pulkovo observatory Saint Petersburg, Russia 0.65 m 10.413 m 1930s In Pulkovo since 1954.
Berlin Observatory Potsdam, Germany 0.65 m 10.12 m 1914 The Berlin Observatory moved in 1913 to Babelsberg
Statue of an astronomer and the concept of the cosmic distance ladder, made from the azimuth ring and other parts of the Yale-Columbia Refractor (telescope) (c 1925) wrecked by the 2003 Canberra bushfires which burned out the Mount Stromlo Observatory; at Questacon, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Statue of an astronomer and the concept of the cosmic distance ladder, made from the azimuth ring and other parts of the Yale-Columbia Refractor (telescope) (c 1925) wrecked by the 2003 Canberra bushfires which burned out the Mount Stromlo Observatory; at Questacon, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

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