The Equatorial Telescope was originally exhibited in 1878 at the Paris Exhibition, the design winning the Gold Medal. An observation of the 1882 transit of Venus made with the telescope can be found here. The telescope was subsequently altered (1901) to take part in the Carte du Ciel project, the ambitous astrographic catalogue of the heavens. The modification involved replacing the single conical tube (in the sketch) with double cylindrical tubes, one holding a 13'' lens to be used for photographic purposes, the other an 8'' lens. Unfortunately not a single plate from the Crawford refractor was included in the final catalogue.

The telescope has been partially restored by Mr Bertie McClure (Belfast).

The partially restored Crawford equatorial telescope                          

 
Sketch from Grubb catalogue of the orginal equatorial telescope