Lovecraft's telescope (& Christopher Tolkien's)

[Extollager]

Many weeks ago, I forget where at Chrons, in response to a remark by me about Lovecraft's astronomical writings, J. D. Worthington referred me to the the 3rd volume of HPL's selected essays. I have enjoyed browsing in an interlibrary loan copy. It is not a book I need to buy, but I'm glad to have perused it. It impresses on me the diligence with which Lovecraft pursued amateur astronomy when he was a young man.

I'm curious regarding just where HPL was when he made his telescopic observations -- did he undertake them from his residence or yard, or did he take a telescope to some hillside -- ? Am I correct in the impression that he had a 3-inch scope, which he regards as a good beginner device, or did he eventually move up to a larger (and probably much more expensive) one? He had but one telescope, correct? -- which ended up as the property of August Derleth?

Incidentally, I was pleased to learn that amateur astronomy was an interest of the Tolkien family's. According to Scull and Hammond (The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, p. 877),

---Priscilla Tolkien [JRRT's daughter] once wrote that her father had a general interest in astronomy,

-------as he did in a vast number of subjects, and he encouraged my brotehrs and myself to be interested in various ways: my brother Christopher [editor of JRRT's posthumous writings] had a telescope, and I was given a book when I was a child called The Starry Heavens [by Ellison Hawks, 1933] which was an admirably simple introduction to the subject....My brother and I looked atthe stars through the telescope and learnt their names and the constellations. My father also talked to us about eclipses of the sun and moon and about the planets and their satellites.------

This same book by Scull and Hammond, by the way, notes JRRT's interest in fossil-hunting at the seashore.

 

[j d worthington]

My memory could be playing up on me, but as I recall, HPL owned three different telescopes throughout his life, the last being with him for many years (two decades? more?). What they were I would have to look up in order to be precise, but he did upgrade. And one shouldn't forget that he was also allowed the occasional use of the telescope at Ladd Observatory as well, when young (before leaving high school)....

 

[Extollager]

That's interesting, JD! I wrote of one because the essay collection somewhere, as I recall, speaks of HPL's telescope as ending up with Derleth and now being on display in a museum in Wisconsin (?) -- anyway it sounded like he had just the one. Perhaps when he acquired a new one, he disposed of the one(s) before.

I'm also curious -- supposing he did a significant amount of observation from his own property (but which address[es] would we be talking about?), did he have the best view of the night sky looking in a particular direction, as compared, say, to interfering light sources, or trees or tall buildings, elsewhere?

 

[j d worthington]

He discusses some of this here and there in his early astronomical writings; there is some of it in his astronomical notebook (or what we have of it, from Dr. David H. Keller's article; these excerpts were included as part of the appendix to the volume you've been reading). Joshi also went into a fair amount of detail on this in both versions of his biography, so you may want to refer to one or the other of those for some expanded information.

As for the locations: Originally, 454 Angell; later 598 Angell. At 454 (his grandfather's house) they had fairly expansive grounds, even following Whipple's financial setbacks; but he later complained about the interference of city lights now and again. He also, despite his reaction to cold weather, would spend a great deal of time out in that winter weather making observations, which certainly must have exacerbated his problems along that line (though they only began to become life-threatening later in his adult years, enough to where even a short exposure to temperatures in the 20s could render him unconscious).

And yes, I believe he did pass on his earlier telescopes as he upgraded, if memory serves, but I'm afraid I don't recall details right off the top of my head....

 

[j d worthington]

By the way... his use of the Ladd Observatory telescope was via the aid of a friend of his family, Prof. Winslow Upton of Brown University. And, on a related note: I don't know if you recall, but he also once met Percival Lowell, who had come there to lecture. HPL was introduced to him by Prof. Upton, and the result (as told by HPL) is rather amusing. Here is the relevant passage:

[...] I never had, have not, and never will have the slightest belief in Lowell's speculations [on Mars]; and when I met him I had just been attacking his theories in my astronomical articles with my characteristically merciless language.* With the egotism of my 17 years, I feared that Lowell had read what I had written! I tried to be as noncommittal as possible in speaking, and fortunately discovered that the eminent observer was more disposed to ask me about my telescope, studies, etc., than to discuss Mars. Prof. Upton soon led him away to the platform, and I congratulated myself that a disaster had been averted!

-- SLI.21-22​

*HPL's memory (he wrote this letter nearly a decade later) was deceiving him; as you can see from his article on the subject included in the volume of his essays, he was at this point much less skeptical than he would soon become....

 

[Extollager]

Yes -- I spotted some critical words about Lowell in the HPL essays.

If you find it, I will be interested to learn about his final telescope. He continued to use a telescope pretty much right up till he became mortally ill in early 1937?

 

[Extollager]

Unfortunately it's a Flickr image & doesn't permit copying, but there's what purports to be a photo of Lovecraft's telescope here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryncramer/63049422/

I would assume that this is genuine. Kathryn Cramer is associated with The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Hasn't it got a lovely steampunk look to it?

 

[Extollager]

In the meantime, enjoy this:

http://nnedi.blogspot.com/view/classic

 

[j d worthington]

Unfortunately it's a Flickr image & doesn't permit copying, but there's what purports to be a photo of Lovecraft's telescope here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryncramer/63049422/

I would assume that this is genuine. Kathryn Cramer is associated with The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Hasn't it got a lovely steampunk look to it?

That looks about right. Seems to me I've seen a photo or two of one of his telescopes a good while back, though I can't recall where (perhaps Chris Peridas' H. P. Lovecraft's and His Legacy blog site), and if memory serves, it looked very much like that....

 

[Ningauble]

That looks about right. Seems to me I've seen a photo or two of one of his telescopes a good while back, though I can't recall where (perhaps Chris Peridas' H. P. Lovecraft's and His Legacy blog site), and if memory serves, it looked very much like that....

Yes it does. I downloaded photos of the telescope somewhere, and it looks just like that.

 

[Extollager]

I don't know much about telescopes, but Lovecraft's is a refractor, correct? I note that it doesn't have a spotter scope, which must have made it somewhat difficult to use if you were a beginner, but Lovecraft must have been well accustomed to telescope use by adulthood.

http://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/lovecrafts-telescope/

Are any of the other notable figures of fantasy literature (not sf) known to have been telescope users? To the best of my knowledge, these writers were not known for being interested: MacDonald, Morris, Dunsany, Hodgson (did he perhaps know something about celestial navigation?), R. E. Howard (pity -- there must have been little light pollution in Cross Plains), Eddison, Machen, Peake, David Lindsay...

Bok was an astrologer, but that is a whole 'nother matter.

Was Poe?

C. S. Lewis knew enough about the night sky to be able to pick out some planets and constellations, but as far as I know he was not a binoculars or telescope user.

 

[Ningauble]

I don't know much about telescopes, but Lovecraft's is a refractor, correct? I note that it doesn't have a spotter scope, which must have made it somewhat difficult to use if you were a beginner, but Lovecraft must have been well accustomed to telescope use by adulthood.

http://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/lovecrafts-telescope/

Are any of the other notable figures of fantasy literature (not sf) known to have been telescope users? To the best of my knowledge, these writers were not known for being interested: MacDonald, Morris, Dunsany, Hodgson (did he perhaps know something about celestial navigation?), R. E. Howard (pity -- there must have been little light pollution in Cross Plains), Eddison, Machen, Peake, David Lindsay...

Bok was an astrologer, but that is a whole 'nother matter.

Was Poe?

C. S. Lewis knew enough about the night sky to be able to pick out some planets and constellations, but as far as I know he was not a binoculars or telescope user.

Dunsany probably didn't do any observing himself, but Hazel Littlefield notes that he showed considerable interest in and knowledge of the subject when she took him to the Mount Palomar observatory. An interested amateur.

 

[Extollager]

Dunsany probably didn't do any observing himself, but Hazel Littlefield notes that he showed considerable interest in and knowledge of the subject when she took him to the Mount Palomar observatory. An interested amateur.

Thank you for this nugget, and for reminding me of Littlefield's Lord Dunsany: King of Dreams. When I was getting into Dunsany's fantasy in the early Seventies, I discovered that my local public library had a copy, and must have read it. Perhaps it was the first biography/memoir for adults that I had read. I copied Dunsany's remark, that he would never write so well again as he did in The King of Elfland's Daughter, which Littlefield records in her book.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZH9b6axwqtYC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=littlefield+dunsany+elfland%27s+never+write+so+well&source=bl&ots=IJHo6tUugg&sig=2uPKT6OKbuAmYOpclZ59YXXrm5g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xBYQUOaaBpPwrAHZ-YDIDA&ved=0CFIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=littlefield%20dunsany%20elfland%27s%20never%20write%20so%20well&f=false

 

[Extollager]

Reactivating this enjoyable discussion of telescopes.