Ritchey Mirror Grinding Machine
George Willis Ritchey built this mirror grinding machine at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, in the late 1890s. Under the sponsorship of George Ellery Hale, it was used to grind a series of telescope mirrors starting with a 60-inch mirror for a telescope initially intended for Yerkes. The grinding machine was moved to Pasadena in 1904 to complete work on the 60-inch mirror. The apparatus was later transferred to the California Institute of Technology, which sold it to the Lick Observatory of the University of California in 1949. It was used for making numerous mirrors over the next four decades and was extensively modified. It embodies the "sub-diameter tool" design approach to making large telescope mirrors: the grinding tool is drawn across the mirror blank by programmable rotating arms.
It was donated to NASM by the Lick Observatory in 1993 and shipped in March of that year.
Display Status
This object is on display in Space Science at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.
