Royal Observatory Greenwich Drawings and Paintings : View of the South East Dome, Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Royal Observatory Greenwich Drawings and Paintings

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Watercolour painting by Christabel Airy; signed and dated on the back. It shows the wooden drum of the newly built South East Dome (finished in 1857). In 1859, the Great Equatorial Telescope [<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/10181.html'><img title="Link to RMG" alt='RMG icon' class='nmm_icon' src='/images/general/nmm_small.png'/></a>] was installed inside it. As the wooden drum was replaced in 1893 by the onion-dome, the drawing provides an important record of the changes to this building through time. Behind the dome, a weather vane is visible. In the foreground, a woman is shown in the Meridian Garden, standing next to a beehive positioned to the left of the Transit Room.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> An earlier painting by Christabel Airy <a href='/view/'> (RGO 116/5/1)</a>, dated 1847, shows a view from the opposite side of this gate looking back towards the Altazimuth Dome.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>For a brief history of the Meridian Garden, see <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=970'>http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=970</a>. For the Great Equatorial Building, see <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=919'>http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=919</a> .</p>