Twin Dome

From 1983 to 1992 the Twin Dome at the Observatory was the home of the Twin Photometric Telescope – two 40 cm telescopes on a mount, a telescope tailor-made for high-precision photometric monitoring with one telescope for the variable star and one for a reference star. The image on the left shows the Twin Dome in 1983, with the fully refurbished telescope and two photometers attached to the back. Since the late 1990s, the Twin Dome has been an empty shell, passed by thousands of visitors on their way to its neighbour, the James Gregory Telescope. The building was never opened to the public. In the Twin Dome Project we aim to turn the dome into a home of art and science.

The Twin Dome during the Open Night 2018. An exhibition devoted to the spectra of elements in the periodic system.

The Twin Dome after the Open Night March 2019: crowd-sourced, spectral line themed painting.

The Twin Dome Project is a collaboration between artist Tim Fitzpatrick and astronomers and engineers at the School of Physics & Astronomy.