Email: Survey Officer
Smart, William Marshall (1889-1975), born in Doune, Perthshire. He was educated at Glasgow University, where he was a student of Ludwig Becker, Director of the Observatory, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. After the war he returned in 1919 as Chief Assistant at the University Observatory, Cambridge, where his duty was to work the Sheepshanks telescope, where he achieved what was then pioneering work in photographic photometry. His principal work then became from 1923-40 stellar kinematics, reflecting the current preoccupation with radial velocities and the structure of the galaxy. In 1937 Smart left Cambridge to succeed Becker as Regius Professor of Astronomy in Glasgow. There the Horselethill Observatory was completely obsolete and compromised by being engulfed by the smoky city, and the chair was under threat. He saved the chair, closed the observatory, and with a fraction of the proceeds built a teaching observatory in the University Gardens, with a 7-inch refractor and small transit. The Observatory was opened by Sir Arthur Eddington in 1939. He had already begun to teach undergraduates successfully, and to attract a small group of graduate students (see: QJRAS, 18 (1977), 140-46).
Ayton House Observatory built for William Watson (see Kinross-shire), it housed an 11.2-inch refractor from Wester Elchies. No visible remains.
Horselethill Observatory, Glasgow (1841-1938), established by public subscription, but was later taken over by Glasgow University in 1845. Originally equipped with a 6-inch Ertel circle and the Ramage reflector, later in 1859 under Robert Grant, the observatory acquired a 9-inch Cooke refracting telescope from the Ochtertyre Observatory. After closure the building was demolished with the Cooke telescope relocated to a new student observatory on the university campus next to the astronomy department (see British University Observatories, 1772-1939).
Ochtertyre Observatory, 1853-61
Established by Sir William Keith Murray in 1857 with a new 9-inch Cooke refractor and 3-inch transit at a total cost of £1,160. However Murray had no time, and the climate was unsuitable for systematics work (David Gavine, thesis p. 260). Nevertheless, in 1861 it was purchased by a subscription fund, and given to Glasgow University’s Horselethill Observatory.