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The Stonyhurst Observatory is a functioning observatory and weather station at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England. Built in 1866, it replaced a nearby earlier building, built in 1838, which is now used as the ''Typographia Collegii''.〔T.E. Muir, ''Stonyhurst'', (St Omers Press, Gloucestershire. Second edition, 2006) ISBN 0-9553592-0-1 pp.145-7〕 The records of temperature, which continue to be taken there, began in 1846 and are one of the oldest continuous daily records in the world.〔(BBC Two - Earth: The Climate Wars, Fightback, Dr Iain Stewart. )〕 (the very oldest continuous daily temperature records was taken at the Old Stockholm Observatory since 1756).〔Retrieved 20 September 2008〕 In 2004, Stonyhurst replaced Ringway as one of four weather stations used by the Met Office to provide central England temperature data (CET); revised urban warming and bias adjustments have since been applied to the Stonyhurst data.〔(Met Office ) Retrieved 21 Oct 2009〕 During the course of the twentieth century, the observatory fell out of use for astronomical purposes and its telescope, parts of which dated to the 1860s, was sold after the Second World War. When its private owner came to re-sell it, the College was able to buy it back and restore it to its original home.〔(Telescope ) Article on Stonyhurst's telescope 2002. Retrieved 18 July 2008〕 (See: Stonyhurst Refractor ) The observatory is currently run by Classics master Fintan O' Reilly, who also teaches GCSE astronomy. Occasionally access is permitted to the observatory for visitors.〔(Stonyhurst article ). Retrieved 22 Oct 2009〕 ==History== The observatory was originally established at Stonyhurst College in 1838, and intended primarily to serve as a meteorological station. With the foundation of the Meteorological Office in 1854, it became one of seven key UK stations. The observatory was managed and operated by the Jesuit priests who ran the school. During the mid-nineteenth century, Fathers Weld, Perry and Sidgreaves, broadened the scope of the observatory's operations to include astronomy, geomagnetrometry and seismology. In 1858, the observatory was chosen as one of the main observing stations by General Sir Edward Sabine, when he was conducting a magnetic survey of England. Five years later, the observatory's first regular series of monthly geomagnetic observations was inaugurated by Fr Sidgreaves. In 1866, the latter installed a set of self-recording photographic magnetographs, donated by the Royal Society, in a specially constructed underground chamber. Sidgreaves also carried out original research into the solar spectrum, contained in many papers published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. In solar physics he made a long photographic study of the sun, including hundreds of photographs taken in the violet light of calcium, using a Hilger spectroscope acquired by Father Perry. In this research he showed that the sun is spectroscopically, a variable star. During his time as president of the Branch, Sidgreaves carried out original work into the spectroscopy of novae. His work on Nova Aurigae, in 1892, contained some of the first photographs of the spectra of novae ever taken. He recognised in them the similarity between the spectrum of the new star and that of the solar chromosphere, rich in the pink light of ionised hydrogen. Equally significant results were obtained with the spectrum of Nova Perseii, in 1901. Sidgreaves was particularly interested in the connection between sunspots and fluctuations in earth's magnetic field. He published several papers on the subject based on observations made at Stonyhurst. In work carried out between 1881 and 1898, he came to the conclusion that although magnetic storms were not directly a result of sunspots, they were due to clouds of electrified particles moving between the sun and earth. We now know that solar mass ejections caused by solar flares can interact with the Earth's magnetic field to produce magnetic storms. They are now of great importance, having been known to disrupt national power-grids and cause expensive damage earth-orbiting telecommunication satellites. In 1848, the year in which Sidgreaves first attended the College, the Italian astronomer, Father Angelo Secchi, of the Jesuit Collegio di Romano Observatory, in Rome, had stayed at Stonyhurst, in retreat from revolutionary troubles in Italy. Stonyhurst's astronomical leanings, particularly in solar observation, apparently stemmed from his time in residence. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stonyhurst Observatory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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