WILHELM TEMPEL AND HIS 10.8-cm STEINHEIL TELESCOPE

Abstract

The German astronomer Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (1821-1889) owed most of his successes to a 10.8-cm Steinheil refractor, which he bought in 1858. A lithographer, without an academic foundation, but with a strong passion for astronomy, Tempel had sharp eyesight and a talent for drawing, and he discovered with his telescope many celestial objects, including asteroids, comets (most notably, 9 P/Tempel 1) and the Merope Nebula in the Pleiades. Tempel carried his telescope with him throughout his moves in France and Italy. The telescope is now conserved in Florence, at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, where Tempel was astronomer from 1875 until the end of his life. Using unpublished material from the Arcetri Historical Archive, as well as documents from other archives and published material, we trace the history of the telescope and its use during and after Tempel's life, and describe its recent rediscovery and status.