Watercolour painting by Christabel Airy; signed and dated on the back. It shows the wooden drum of the newly built South East Dome (finished in 1857). In 1859, the Great Equatorial Telescope was installed inside it [http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/10181.html]. As the wooden drum was replaced in 1893 by the onion-dome, the drawing provides an important record of the changes to this building through time. Behind the dome, a weather vane is visible. In the foreground, a woman is shown in the Meridian Garden, standing next to a beehive positioned to the left of the Transit Room.

An earlier painting by Christabel Airy [RGO 116/5/1], dated 1847, shows a view from the opposite side of this gate looking back towards the Altazimuth Dome.