Dr David Kennedy’s Meeanee Observatory captured first Halley’s Comet photos

An image of the Moon, from the Meeanee Observatory photograph album, 1907-1908.

• The Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust holds a photograph album from the Meeanee Observatory, opened in 1907.
• Dr David Kennedy, who established the observatory, captured notable astronomical photographs, including Comet Daniel and Halley’s Comet.
• The observatory also served as a meteorological station, providing valuable data for local orchardists.

Some of the treasures within the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust’s rich and varied collection may, on first glance, seem unimportant.

One such item is a well-worn photograph album. Inside the front cover an inscription reads: “The following photographs are a few samples of work done at the Meeanee Observatory, Napier, NZ, opened in July 1907”.

The observatory was the inspiration of Dr David Kennedy, a scientist whose academic interests lay in astronomy, meteorology and entomology.

Kennedy grew up in Christchurch and, as a child, showed a keen interest in science and theology.

In 1878, aged 13, he was sent by the Marist Brothers to study at their college in Dundalk, Ireland.

He went on to study at the Royal University of Ireland and in 1886 was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and science.

After studying theology in France and Spain he was ordained a Marist Priest in Rome, 1891.

While teaching in Ireland Kennedy wrote a popular textbook “Natural Philosophy for Junior Students” which covered scientific topics, including hydrostatics, pneumatics, gravity and motion.

The textbook was published in Dublin 1891 and proved so popular in Catholic Schools throughout Ireland and Britain, that by 1926 it had been republished 10 times.

In 1893 Kennedy returned to Aotearoa and gained a teaching position in Te Matau-a-Māui, at St Mary’s Scholasticate, a training and preparation school for Catholic novices and clerics.

The Scholasticate was situated in the Meeanee Catholic Mission grounds alongside St Mary’s Church.

When Kennedy arrived, he brought with him a 6.5 inch (16.5cm) reflecting telescope and, with the help of some of his students and lay Brothers, installed it in a newly built observatory close to the swimming baths at the back of the Seminary.

This small building was a triumph of engineering, particularly the dome which was ingeniously constructed from wooden cartwheels. From here he began his meteorological and astronomical observations and recordings.

Eight years later (1901) Kennedy was appointed rector of the Scholasticate and in 1905 sold the observatory and telescope to purchase a nine-inch (23cm) Cooke’s photo-visual refracting telescope, built in England, circa 1867.

The sheer size of the telescope determined that a larger and more advanced building was required.

Under the skilful direction of Brother Malachy, assisted by keen scientific students and practical lay Brothers, a new observatory was built within the Catholic Mission grounds on the corner of Powdrell and Meeanee Rds.

This unpretentious small wooden building, surmounted by the dome, measured six metres square, had a front verandah, and window on each side.

Using Kennedy’s design, Jas Niven & Co Ltd, of Port Ahuriri engineered the large revolving iron dome, 10 foot (3m) in diameter and weighing a tonne.

Once mounted securely in situ, the dome could be moved smoothly and effortlessly on wheels and ball-bearing races. The observation opening in the dome, through which the telescope could obtain a clear view of the “heavens”, was manipulated by one section revolving on a second outer ball-bearing race.

The Meeanee Observatory with telescope installed, was officially opened July 1907.

A month later, Kennedy was successful in capturing a “superb” photograph of Comet Daniel, the image of which is shown in the back of the album.

The observatory also served as a meteorological station, housing a pluviographic instrument to measure rainfall, a hydrometer for ascertaining the amount of moisture in the air, and thermometers and thermographs for measuring and recording atmospheric heat.

The observatory also had an alarm thermometer which signalled the danger of frost – invaluable for Te Matau-a-Māui orchardists who had grapevines and fruit to protect.

Kennedy trained two of his students, Joe Cullen and Ignatius von Gottfried, to work with him and between late 1907 and 1908 photographs of the moon and sun were taken. Aimed at those interested in astronomy, the album briefly describes each image.

On pages 16-17 a “portion of the moon” is shown and described: “Copernicus is the name given to the crater about one-and-a-half inches (4cm) from the top.

It is 56 miles (90km) in diameter, and its walls are in some places 12,000 feet (3.6km) high. Just below Copernicus are the Carpathian Mountains.

About an inch (2.5cm) to the left of the Carpathians is the crater Eratosthenes standing at one extremity of the most magnificent range of mountains on the moon, the Apennines extending to a length of more than 450 miles (724km) and rising in places to a height of 18,000 feet (5.5km).

Below the Apennines are the Caucasus mountains, and to the right of these the Alps with the remarkable Alpine Valley which is about 80 miles (128km) long and from 4 (6.4km) to 6 miles (9.6km) wide.

To the east of the Alps lies the crater Plato, about 60 miles (96km) in diameter.

Kennedy with Cullen and Gottfried used the Meeanee Observatory in 1910, to take the world’s very first photographs of Halley’s Comet – some of these photos were considered the best in the world.

So much so, that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) republished one of these photographs when Halley’s comet was last seen in 1986.

When the Seminary shifted from Meeanee to Greenmeadows in 1911 the observatory went too but was destroyed during a storm in 1912 and never re-established.