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Instruments

The principal instrument of the observatory used to be the 254-mm-mirror Newtonian telescope manufactured by the Browning Company in 1874, purchased from Miklós Konkoly Thege. The equipment, obtained at the time when the institute was founded, was gradually improved with more up-to-date instruments of astrophotography and spectroscopy. Gothard got his degree in mechanical engineering at the Politechnische Hochschule in Vienna, which served as an excellent basis for his career as an instrument constructor. The equipment necessary for his astrophysical research and other devices were all self-designed and produced in his precision-mechanics workshop with the help of his technician. He also equipped several European astronomical institutes (Vienna, Bothkamp, Potsdam, Heidelberg, Brussels) with instruments generally made in two or three copies. He produced quite a few devices for the observatory in Ógyalla.

WEDGE PHOTOMETER COMPARATOR

Wedge photometer for measuring stellar magnitudes (1885).
Comparator, a measuring instrument for astrophotographic plates (1888).

As early as in 1883 in Herény, Jenő Gothard used electricity for lighting in his tools. The physics laboratory of the observatory was equipped with state-of-the-art glass and vacuum-technology instruments.

Besides constructing numerous spectroscopes and spectrographs for the institute, Gothard also made gas discharge tubes for spectroscopic experiments. At the beginning, he also assembled the necessary spark inductors, but later on he bought those from the Max Kohl Company. The most precious of Gothard's spectrographs is an Icelandic double lime prism-quartz lens sidero-spectrograph.

BROWNING-REFLECTOR JENŐ GOTHARD WITH THE BROWNING-REFLECTORRAL

The principal instrument, the 254 mm Newtonian telescope in Gothard's original photo.
Gothard, working with the Browning reflector.

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