List of largest optical refracting telescopes

Paris 1900 exposition refractor.
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Paris 1900 exposition refractor.

Here is a list of the largest optical refracting telescopes sorted by lens diameter. The largest refractor ever constructed was French. It was on display at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Its lens was stationary, prefigured so as to sag into the correct shape. The telescope was aimed with the aid of a Foucault sidérostat, which is a movable plane mirror of diameter 2 m (6.56 feet), mounted in a large cast-iron frame. The horizontal tube was 60 m (197 feet) long and the objective had 1.25 m (4.1 feet) in diameter. The results were poor. When the year-long exposition was over, its builders were unable to sell it. It was ultimately broken up for scrap.


Observatory Lens diameter Focal length Built Comments
Paris 1900 Exposition
(Paris, France)
1.25 m 57 m 1900 Fixed lens, total failure, scrapped.
Yerkes Observatory
(Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA)
1.02 m 19.4 m 1897  
Swedish Solar Telescope
(Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma)
1 m 15 m 2002 Adaptive optics corrected telescope
Lick Observatory
(Mount Hamilton (California), USA)
0.91 m 17.6 m 1888  
Paris Observatory
(Meudon, France)
0.83 m + 0,62 m 16.2 m 1891 Double telescope
Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam
(Potsdam, Germany)
0.80 m + 0.50 m 12.0 m 1899 Double telescope
Côte d'Azur Observatory
(Nice, France)
0.76 m 17.9 m 1887  
Allegheny Observatory
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)
0.76 m 14.1 m 1914  
Royal Greenwich Observatory
(Greenwich, London, England)
0.71 m 8.5 m 1894  
Vienna Observatory
(Vienna, Austria)
0.69 m 10.5 m 1878  
Archenhold Observatory
(Berlin, Germany)
0.68 m 21 m 1896  
Johannesburg Observatory
(Johannesburg, South Africa)
0.67 m 10.9 m 1925  
McCormick Observatory
(Charlottesville, Virginia, USA)
0.67 m 9.9 m 1883  
Royal Greenwich Observatory
(Greenwich, London, England)
0.66 m 6.8 m 1897  
U.S. Naval Observatory
(Washington, DC, USA)
0.66 m 9.9 m 1873  
Mount Stromlo Observatory
(Mount Stromlo, Australia)
0.66 m 10.8 m 1925 Previously located in South-Africa. Relocated to Australia in 1952. Destroyed by bush fire on January 18, 2003
Belgrade Observatory
(Belgrade, Yugoslavia)
0.65 m 10,55 m   Same instrument as at the Berlin Observatory
Berlin Observatory
(Potsdam, Germany)
0.65 m 10,12 m 1914 The Berlin Observatory moved in 1913 to Potsdam, Babelsberg

fr:Liste des plus grandes lunettes

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