
4 0 c m
31cm
actual image size: 23cm x 32cm
Description
Pietro Patron in Milan, Italy made the smallest telescope with its ivory mounted lenses and decorated green vellum tube. The larger telescope with green parchment tube on a wooden stand is unsigned but also Italian in origin. The largest telescope made from wood and leather is by an unknown English maker, and when fully extended measures 16 1/2 feet. Unlike Galileo's (1564-1642) telescopes, they are fitted with convex eyepiece lenses, as first suggested by the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) in 1611. This gives them a much wider field of view than Galileo's telescopes, while the inverted image can be made upright by adding an extra convex lens.
Image Details
Image Ref.
10196716
© Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library