Here's a Chateau Laurier ad from 1958 and a view of our vacation accommodations in Ottawa.
 |
| from: Ontario Road Book; 1958-59; Ontario Motor League. |
The Dominion Observatory was located on the Experimental Farm grounds, because when it was built, this area was far from the light pollution of the city.
Above, in June 1963, I'm playing 'out cow' without a fielder's mitt.
Perhaps the photographer wanted me there for scale ... or for my shadow.
You can see the dome is open - they may be performing some solar observing.
* * *
Above, the view from the Peace Tower, looking up the Ottawa River.
* * *
When in Ottawa ... we stayed in the finest local motels. With screens.
* * *
My spouse is an amateur astronomer.
However, she is not responsible for the contents of this post.
The Dominion Observatory was built between 1897 and 1902* out of red sandstone. After a particular 15-inch refracting telescope was chosen, the observatory dome was designed around it. The idea behind the establishment of the Dominion Observatory was to enable Canada to meet the developing international standards for scientific astronomy.
* Before this, some wooden buildings on a cliff near Parliament housed Canada's first observing instruments.
Today, we rely on triangulating satellite signals to tell us where we are on the planet. Sophisticated electronics perform the necessary calculations to provide ordinary citizens with pretty accurate location information.
GPS the Old Way - Books and Nautical Sextants
Before satellites (the USSR's primitive beeping-ball Sputnik was the first in 1957), we relied on astronomical observatories to make precise measurements and calculations ... and to publish books full of tables showing the precise positions of stars and planets ... at precise times in the future ... at precise locations across the globe. Precisely!
With this 'original global positioning system' using paper and special optical sighting equipment (eg. nautical sextants) ... surveyors in the wilderness could draw maps to locate railways ... and ships could navigate. Large, fast aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s had glass domes through which 'star shots' could be made to verify their course and to correct for wind drift.
Correct Time Without the Internet
In the simplest terms, when the sun was observed to be directly overhead, it was noon. Before standard time zones were established, this calculation might be performed locally. Atop a prominent tall building in a city, a time ball could be dropped at noon so citizens could set their watches to the correct time.
By the point in history when time zones were agreed upon, many countries also had the communications infrastructure to relay the exact 'top of the hour' instantly ... so that the time in important population centres was properly synchronized.
For example, as the CPR article below documents ... a daily railway telegraph signal could be sent out from Montreal to mark the precise time - across the entire railway from Saint John to Vancouver.
So ... the Dominion Observatory Was Handy to Have! Want another?
There were many practical things one could 'do' with the Dominion Observatory beyond 'stargazing' for the love of pure science.
I skimmed through the original report on potential locations. It seems that the government-built Dominion Astrophysical Observatory was set up in Victoria, British Columbia in 1914 ... because the celestial visibility was the best there - of all the cities considered. However, the intention was to use it to complement the work already being done by the existing Dominion Observatory in Ottawa.
* * *
After posting - Thank you to Jim Christie for this link on the Victoria telescope.
The article was written by the head of that observatory.
* * *
Thanks to Jim's link, I found this booklet at archive.org detailing some of the equipment
manufactured by the same company that built Canada's two telescopes.
A Few Astronomical Instruments from the works of Warner & Swasey
* * *
Here are some pictures ...
The postcard serial number suggests a 1908 publishing date.
* * *
I don't know if they got the correct 'red sandstone' colour on this hand-coloured card.
* * *
* * *
 |
| from: RASC 2019 GA - The National Heritage of the Dominion Observatory, YouTube |
Here is the 15-inch refractor which the Dominion Observatory was designed to house - ready for use.
According to the RASC YouTube presentation (you can search for it using the title in the caption above) the telescope was removed in 1974 and is currently stored in a warehouse of the Canada Science and Technology Museum.
... While returning the telescope to its original location would reinforce the historic nature of the Dominion Observatory ... well ... it's 'political' ... and now the S&T Museum doesn't want to part with it.
* * *
Old Map, New Problems
 |
| from: Historical Topographic Map Digitization Project. https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/collection/ |
The map above shows Ottawa circa 1906 with the Dominion Observatory labelled in the centre. You can see that the Observatory is quite remote from buildings with lights.
Furthermore, 120 years ago, outdoor lights were not designed to brightly illuminate every square metre of the city where an automobile might be driving or parked - as they are today. Old arc or incandescent lights were used much more sparingly. So even in cities, nighttime was darker back then.
Below, is a closeup of the neighbourhood around the Dominion Observatory building today. Parking lots, headlights, floodlights, porch lights ...
And anywhere cities and builders see flat greenspace - such as the Experimental Farm Grounds - they feel compelled to build on it. The campus of the new Ottawa Civic Hospital is being built nearby, and I believe a 5-storey parking garage will soon be dwarfing the nearby Observatory.
 |
| from: Google Maps |
So even my pokey little effort to display a few postcards uncovers evidence of how little we seem to care about our history and its heritage buildings.
* * *
This article from 1916 shows the general significance of national observatories during that era.
Today, the main 26-inch refracting telescope is still in the observatory dome and in use.
 |
| from: Our Country & Its Resources; 1916; Munn & Co. |
* * *
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Observatory, Greenwich is preserved, even though the active observatory was moved to Herstmonceux in East Sussex in 1957.
For fun, here is a partial list of the worldwide adoption of Greenwich-based time zones.
As you already know, Sandford Fleming was a key promoter of this international system.
 |
| from: Greenwich Time & the Discovery of the Longitude; Derek Howse; 1980; Oxford. at archive.org |
Below is the Observatory as it appeared circa 1700.
 |
| from: The Royal Observatory Greenwich; W Walter Maunder; 1900; The Religious Tract Society. at archive.org |
* * *
The following article comes from Factors in Railway and Steamship Operation; 1937; Canadian Pacific Railway. The McGill Observatory was a stone tower built in 1863. In 1874, Professor CH MacLeod determined this observatory's exact longitude and he was subsequently asked to telegraph daily time signals to the railways, harbours and particular government departments in Ottawa. The railways were still using the McGill time signal in the early 1960s. The McGill Observatory building was demolished in 1963.
In 1977, the White River yard office was using the National Research Council's time signal - broadcast over the CBC radio network daily at 13hr until 2023.
Circa 2005, my spouse and I visited a 'Doors Open' weekend at Ottawa and enjoyed a tour of the Dominion Observatory building illustrated by those postcards above. I told the NRC interpreter that in 1977 'our' CP Rail railway watches were compared to standard clocks set to 'his' time signal whenever we came on duty.
... If the computerized CTC system had gone down for a prolonged period ... We would have been expected to operate our trains based on the 'old timetable and train order system' (UCOR revision of 1962) with train meets timed by the our wristwatches.
... So there was one important use of his NRC time signal sent out over the public radio airwaves ...
... Speaking as an engineer created in the mold of Sandford Fleming, he nodded and replied: 'You always need to have a backup!'
