11-inch Clark refractor
E584801
The 11-inch Clark refractor is a historic, high-quality refracting telescope built by Alvan Clark & Sons, notable for its role in pioneering astrophotographic and spectroscopic observations in the late 19th century.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 11-inch Clark refractor canonical | 1 |
| Fitz-Clark Refractor | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6308787 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 11-inch Clark refractor Context triple: [Henry Draper, instrumentUsed, 11-inch Clark refractor]
-
A.
Maksutov telescope
A Maksutov telescope is a compact catadioptric reflecting telescope that uses a meniscus corrector lens to deliver sharp, well-corrected images with relatively simple alignment and maintenance.
-
B.
100-inch Hooker telescope
The 100-inch Hooker telescope is a historic reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, famous for Edwin Hubble’s observations that revealed the expanding universe and established galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
-
C.
Palomar 18-inch Schmidt Telescope
The Palomar 18-inch Schmidt Telescope is a small wide-field survey instrument at Palomar Observatory historically used for photographic sky surveys and the discovery of comets and asteroids.
-
D.
140 Foot Telescope
The 140 Foot Telescope is a large single-dish radio telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, historically used for a wide range of radio astronomy research.
-
E.
Schmidt telescope
A Schmidt telescope is a wide-field reflecting telescope design that uses a spherical primary mirror and a correcting lens to capture sharp images over a large area of the sky.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 11-inch Clark refractor Target entity description: The 11-inch Clark refractor is a historic, high-quality refracting telescope built by Alvan Clark & Sons, notable for its role in pioneering astrophotographic and spectroscopic observations in the late 19th century.
-
A.
Maksutov telescope
A Maksutov telescope is a compact catadioptric reflecting telescope that uses a meniscus corrector lens to deliver sharp, well-corrected images with relatively simple alignment and maintenance.
-
B.
100-inch Hooker telescope
The 100-inch Hooker telescope is a historic reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, famous for Edwin Hubble’s observations that revealed the expanding universe and established galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
-
C.
Palomar 18-inch Schmidt Telescope
The Palomar 18-inch Schmidt Telescope is a small wide-field survey instrument at Palomar Observatory historically used for photographic sky surveys and the discovery of comets and asteroids.
-
D.
140 Foot Telescope
The 140 Foot Telescope is a large single-dish radio telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, historically used for a wide range of radio astronomy research.
-
E.
Schmidt telescope
A Schmidt telescope is a wide-field reflecting telescope design that uses a spherical primary mirror and a correcting lens to capture sharp images over a large area of the sky.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (29)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
astronomical telescope
ⓘ
historic telescope ⓘ refracting telescope ⓘ |
| aperture |
11 inches
ⓘ
approximately 280 millimeters ⓘ |
| builder |
Alvan Clark
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Alvan Clark & Sons NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| constructionPeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| era | late 19th century ⓘ |
| field |
astronomy
ⓘ
astrophysics ⓘ |
| heritageStatus | historic scientific instrument ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
contributed to early development of astronomical spectroscopy
ⓘ
contributed to early development of astrophotography ⓘ |
| manufacturer | Alvan Clark & Sons NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| material | glass objective lens ⓘ |
| mountType | equatorial mount ⓘ |
| notableFor |
high optical quality
ⓘ
pioneering astrophotographic observations ⓘ pioneering spectroscopic observations ⓘ |
| observationType | optical ⓘ |
| opticalDesign | achromatic refractor ⓘ |
| opticalQuality | high ⓘ |
| technologyEra | pre-photographic plate standardization ⓘ |
| telescopeType | refractor ⓘ |
| usedBy | astronomers ⓘ |
| usedFor |
astrophotography
ⓘ
spectroscopy ⓘ visual astronomical observation ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: 11-inch Clark refractor Description of subject: The 11-inch Clark refractor is a historic, high-quality refracting telescope built by Alvan Clark & Sons, notable for its role in pioneering astrophotographic and spectroscopic observations in the late 19th century.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Fitz-Clark Refractor