John A. Brashear later became connected with the ob- 
servatory and constructed many instruments for which a 
demand developed in all parts of the world. He raised suf- 
ficient funds to build the present beautiful building, costing 
about $300,000. A 30-inch reflector was built, called the 
Keeler Memorial Telescope. This is adapted to spectrosco- 
pic work, and with it were determined the orbits of a large 
number of spectroscopic binaries, stars which by means of 
the spectroscope are known to be double, and yet are so 
close together that the telescope is not capable of show- 
ing them double. 
As a memorial to Willlam Thaw and his son, William 
Thaw, Jr., the immediate families of these men furnished the 
money, about $125,000, for the erection of the Thaw Memo- 
rial Refractor. So difficult was the task of making perfect 
dises, a wait of more than 10 years was necessary before they 
could be delivered. The second of these discs was sent from 
Germany only four months before the outbreak of the World 
War. In April, 1914, after the receipt of this disc, the 
Brashear Company ground and finished the lens in four 
months, much the shortest time in which any large lens had 
ever been finished. The observatory now houses the finest 
photographic reflector in the world. 
The present director is Dr. Heber D. Curtis, who has 
been a member of every important expedition for the ob- 
servation of solar eclipses in recent years. 
Four nights a week are allotted to visitors to the observa- 
tory, and about 5000 persons, many of them from distant 
parts of the country, and other parts of the world, “see the 
stars” annually through the facilities offered by the Pitts- 
burgh University.