'Site of the Twenty Feet Reflector at Fieldhausen', 1834

Site of the Twenty Feet Reflector at Fieldhausen', 1834. Lithograph by G H Ford after an original by J F W Herschel, used as a frontispiece engraving to 'Results of Astronomical Observations made 1834-38 at the Cape of Good Hope'. Published in 1847, this document records the observations of Sir John F W Herschel while making the first detailed telescopic survey of the Southern skies. The only son of the astronomer Sir William Herschel, he was continuing the work of his father who had already mapped the Northern skies. The image shows the 20-Foot Telescope that Herschel used to discover thousands of new celestial objects. The building to the right housed a smaller telescope that was used to pinpoint their position in the sky. Herschel observed from Feldhausen House near Table Mountain at Claremont, six miles from Capetown, South Africa. ©SSPL/Science Museum