In the 1890s David Kennedy, a Marist priest and keen astronomer, built a first observatory at the seminary at Meeanee in Hawke’s Bay. In 1907 he had a larger observatory built, with a 3-metre-diameter revolving iron dome, to house a 23-centimetre telescope – one of the largest in New Zealand at the time. In 1910 Kennedy and two seminarians used the observatory to take photographs of Halley’s Comet, which were among the best in the world. Kennedy is shown here in the observatory’s adjustable, inclined chair, looking into the telescope.
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