Much as a surprise to many Leuven inhabitants, once upon a time, all the way back to 1884, there lived an avid amateur astronomer called François Terby. He invested an enormous amount of money to build a 3-story observatory (brick walls, wooden dome) next to his house in the Bogaarden street.
His observations were mainly planetary, Jupiter and also Mars. Many drawings are available, and he corresponded with Schiaparelli in Milan about the ‘canals’ on Mars. His enthousiasm was such that he also could confirm these so-called-channels.
Yesterday I could visit the Leuven city archive, and some surprises came up:
- The 8″ refractor telescope was always called by Terby himself as a “Grubb” telescope, now it is unmistakenly mounted on a Thomas Cooke telescope mount.
- The observatory was not just a roof add-on, but a substantial seperate tower, including a proper foundation and a wooden dome, about 4 meters in diameter.
Now the hunt is on for the lost refractor. In 1961 the observatory was demolished.
