Telescopes at the University of Mississippi

Kennon Observatory

In the larger dome, is a refractor telescope that was purchased from the Sr. Howard Grubb Co. in 1893. It actually consists of 3 co-aligned visual and photographic telescopes; a fifteen-inch f/12 visual telescope, a nine-inch photographic telescope and a four-inch visual telescope.

The smaller dome currently houses a seventeen-inch f/6.8 Plane Wave, Corrected Dall-Kirkham reflector telescope with an electronic CCD camera, the SBIG ST10 with an AO-7 adaptive optics accessory, attached to it. The current telescope mount is a Paramount ME.

Teaching Telescopes

Diameter

Focal Length

Model

Type

Notes

Original Telescopes

The five-inch refractor telescope that was originally in the smaller dome of the Kennon Observatory, was made by Murz & Son of Munich. It had been acquired by F. A. P. Barnard in about 1856 and is now a part of the Millington - Barnard Collection on display at the University Museum.

Also Barnard had ordered an 18.5-inch refractor telescope from Alvin Clark & Sons in 1856. In January, 1862, when Alvin Clark was testing the telescope he discovered Sirius B, the “white dwarf” companion of Sirius the “dog star”. However, due to the outbreak of the Civil War, it was never delivered to the University of Mississippi. See the "Mississippi Roads" show (#2606) on the Telescope's History.