The Amateur’s Telescope. Belfast: R. Carswell, 1920. First Edition. Pp 112 Publisher’s quarter cloth boards, title in gilt to spine. Ex library copy, with ink stamps & with occasional label residue to endpapers; contents pages in good condition.

Illustrated with text drawings.

William Frederick Archdall (1864-1936) clergyman and astronomer, was born in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. He set up his first astronomical observatory in Fethard-on-Sea in Co. Wexford & was appointed director of Armagh observatory in 1918.

According to Russell G. Porter, Ellison’s book was the only modern handbook on telescope making available at the time, and it was incorporated into the famous three-volume work Amateur telescope making, edited by Albert G. Ingalls and published by Scientific American in 1933  [DIB]