The Newbrook Observatory (a designated historic building) was built in
Newbrook, Alberta,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, by the Stellar Physics Division of the
Dominion Observatory
The Dominion Observatory was an astronomical observatory in Ottawa, Ontario that operated from 1902 to 1970. The Observatory was also an institution within the Canadian Federal Government. The observatory grew out of the Department of the Inte ...
and operated as a space observatory from 1952 until 1957.
The observatory was equipped with a Super-Schmidt Meteor Camera, one of only six built by the
Perkin-Elmer Company used to observe meteors. One of the observatory resident scientists, Art Griffin, was the first in North America to photograph the
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...
satellite (less than a week after its launch).
In 1970, the government consolidated astronomical research and the observatories at
Meanook (similar nearby facility, c.23 miles NW) and Newbrook was closed.
See also
*
List of astronomical observatories
This is a partial list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no lon ...
References
External links
News story about getting the camera back in working order
Infrastructure completed in 1951
Astronomical observatories in Canada
Provincial Historic Resources of Alberta
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