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Calais Observatory
The Calais Observatory is a pair of granite fixtures in Meridian Park in Calais, Maine. The two stones were used for mounting scientific equipment used in a variety of astronomical observations, principally for the accurate calculation by the United States Coast Survey of Calais's longitude with respect to meridians in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Greenwich, England.〔(''Finding North America, Part 2'' )〕 The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012,〔 and is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Heritage Trail program.〔(''NOAA Heritage Trail: The Calais Observatory'' )〕 At the time of its longitude determination in 1866 with respect to the Greenwich Meridian, it was arguably one of the most precisely located places in the United States.〔
==Description==
The Calais Observatory site is located on a granite knob in Meridian Park, on the grounds of the former Calais Academy, at the corner of North and Lincoln Streets. The surviving elements of the observatory are two granite fixtures, along with flat pads chiseled out of the bedrock, and several drill holes. The site was known to be sheltered by a nominally permanent structure in both 1857 and 1866, but had by 1895 lost whatever shelter it had.〔Nelson, Harold; Mitchell, Christi (2012); NRHP nomination for Calais Observatory; available by request from the Maine SHPO〕
The shorter of the two granite fixtures is called the transit stone; it stands about tall, wide, and deep, and is oriented so that its sides align with the cardinal compass points. The top of the stone is incised with two channels, for aligning an astronomical transit and to accommodate the device's crank. The taller fixture is known as the clock stone, and about square at its base, tapering to at its top off the ground. It is located about west of the transit stone, and has a number of grooves and holes carved into it. The exact function of this stone is not documented, but its features are consistent with the mounting of a Hardy pendulum clock of the type used by the survey crews. The clock would have been removed from its case and mounted on this stone; the transit stone would not have accommodated the clock. In addition to the two stone fixtures, there are rough square pads carved out of the bedrock about north and south of the transit stone, and there are two holes drilled into the bedrock, and west of the transit stone; the function of these features is not known.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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