Obtained by Prof. Gowan at U of Alberta in 1950. It had been retrofitted with the expanded wavelength selection capability before Gowan obtained it in 1950. To my knowledge Gowan used #18 as a teaching aid and it was never used in an operational observing program while at U of A. I don't believe any of Gowan's data were ever published in the WMO Redbook. The story goes that one of Gowan's students toppled the instrument from the wheeled trolley onto a hard surface. But it was handed over by the U of A and put into use by MSC Canada for the start of the IGY on July 1, 1957 after being 'straightened out' by Walter Komhyr and other physicists who had been selected to operate the Canadian IGY Dobson Stations. From July 1, 1957 onwards, Dobson 18 was located at the old Municipal Airport in downtown Edmonton until it was relocated to the new Upper Air Station at Stony Plain. I did the relocation of Dobson #18 but I'll be darned if I remember the year. It was probably during the mid 60's but it really doesn't matter.

This Dobson moved from the Edmonton Industrial Airport to Stony Plain sometime between 1966 and 1968. This is a preWWII photoelectric Dobson which was upgraded after the war.

Dobson #18 was taken out of service at Stony Plain in about March 1969 (replaced by Dobson 102) when it became a spare instrument at CMS HQ's Toronto. But #18 was more than just a 'spare' instrument since Ray Olafson and myself used it to teach ourselves the optical alignment and calibration techniques found in Dobbie's literature. Furthermore, we developed some new procedures, but most important was that we didn't have to use an operational network instrument to teach ourselves.

Dobson #18 actually did some local travelling in Canada. We used it as a secondary reference standard in the mid 70's when John Bellefleur and myself did a summer jaunt to Churchill, Stony Plain & Resolute to compare against the resident instruments. But at the request of WMO in 1980 we used Dobson #18 as a reference standard in Italy when Doc Olafson, John Bellefleur and myself spent three weeks at the observatory in Vigni Di Valle, just 40 km north of Rome. The Italian network comprised four Dobsons all of which were brought to V-D-V, one each from Sestola, Brindisi, Cagliari and V-D-V plus a spare (they always have a spare). We standardized and converted these Dobsons with new electronics in a period of less than three weeks. It was deemed an impossible task to many in the world Dobson community but we managed.

New Life for Dobson 18. At the request of WMO, CMS Canada donated Dobson 18 for placement in Nairobi, Kenya. So, in early 1984 we prepared #18 with all the up-to-date technical functions, electronics etc and a new coat of white paint. I spent five weeks teaching three technologists at the University of Nairobi resulting in a new observing station in the world network commencing April 1984.

This Dobson was grey originally. In August 2006 this station was still reporting to WOUDC from Kenya.

This Dobson was purchased from R & J Beck in 1957 and became the operational instrument for the IGY program at Resolute on July 1, 1957. It remained at Resolute until August 1990 when it was returned to Toronto. It remained unused until sometime in the late 1990's when it was loaned to WMO for placement in Egypt where it became an operational instrument at a new station of the west coast of the Red Sea.
This Dobson was transferred to Egypt in 1999. In October 2008 it was reporting to WOUDC from Hurghada, Egypt.

This Dobson was purchased from R & J Beck in 1957 and became the operational instrument for the IGY program at Alert on July 1, 1957. It remained at Alert until November 1958 when it was returned to Toronto and became the operational instrument at the Scarborough Field Station in December 1959 until November 1964 when it was installed at the new Churchill observatory (December 1964). It was taken out of service and returned to Toronto in August 1989 and remains unused. It is probably located in the roof observatory underneath the false floor on which Dobson 77 sits.

As of October 2009 it was under the false floor.

This Dobson was purchased from R & J Beck in 1957 and became the operational instrument for the IGY program at Moosonee from July 1, 1957 until July 1961 when it was returned to Toronto. Dobson 62 became the operational instrument at the new observatory in Goose Bay in January 1962 and remained there until about 1987/88 when it was returned to Toronto where it remained in mothballs for several years. It was eventually loaned to Switzerland and has been in service at the Arosa observatory since about 1992.

This Dobson last reported to WOUDC from Goose in September 1988 and last from Arosa in December 1992.

This Dobson was purchased from R & J Beck in the early 1960's. I remember seeing the instrument at the Scarborough station when I began work at the observatory in March 1963. It became the operational instrument at the field station in 1964 (or 1965) and was relocated in 1972 to AES HQ's where it remains in 2009. This Dobson attended the WMO intercomparisons at Belsk, Poland (1974) and Boulder, USA (1977). In addition, John B and myself took it to Mauna Loa, Hawaii for a month in 1980 to establish the extra-terrestrial constants.

April 21, 2008 was the last recorded date for a Dobson observation from #77.

This Dobson was purchased from R & J Beck in the mid 1960's and became the operational instrument at the Stony Plain observatory in the late 1960's when it replaced Dobson 18. It remained in service until about 1986/87 when it was returned to Toronto. The whereabouts of Dobson 102 is unknown to me except that it was loaned to John Deluisi in Boulder, Colorado some time in the 1990's.

This Dobson first reported to WOUDC from Stony Plain in March 1969 and last reported in March 1988. It was loaned to NOAA in June 1992. There were no reports to WOUDC from this Dobson after it was sent to NOAA. In 2009 there is a grey Dobson #4 with part missing in the old wind tunnel at Downsview which was received from Egypt in the late 1980s. This is a preWWII photoelectric Dobson which was upgraded after the war. This unit was not repaired due to the cost.