25-inch Newall refractor telescope. Scottish astronomer Robert S. Newall (1812-1889) using his telescope in its observatory dome at Ferndene, Gateshead, England. Erected in 1870, it was for a time the largest in the world. It took the English instrument maker Thomas Cooke (1807-1868) seven years to build. The tube was over nine metres long, and the telescope weighed nearly nine tons. Observing conditions were unsuitable in Gateshead, and the telescope was moved in 1891 to Cambridge where it was used by Newall's son, Hugh F. Newall (1857-1944). It was later moved again in the 1950s to the National Observatory of Athens, Greece.