Glass from the making of the 200’’ Hale Telescope

Description

This piece of glass is a chip from the 200” primary mirror which was manufactured by Corning for the California Institute of Technology’s Hale Telescope. The primary mirror is the principal light-gathering surface of a reflecting telescope, and they were made from shaped disks of polished reflective metal, or in later telescopes, glass.

Object Information

Date Created:

Ca. 1934

Local ID:

FI Catalog # 3968 F

Collection:

The Franklin Institute Astronomy Collection

Place of Creation/Discovery:

New York

Count:

1

Citation:

Hale Telescope Glass (FI Catalog # 3968 F) from the collections of The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA. USA

Dimensions:

76.2cm high x 91.44cm long x 60.96cm deep

Creator(s):

Corning Glass Works

Materials:

glass

Classification:

T&E For Science & Technology, Astronomical T&E

Rights:

Fair Use for educational purposes

Appears In

Resource Kit
The Franklin Institute

Treading Among the Stars: How We’ve Found Our Way

Long before there were advanced technologies available for studying the sky, people devised ways of depicting the sun, moon, planets, and stars in relation to the Earth to figure out how our planet fit into the vast universe. Our method of exploring the night sky has grown to now include actual trips into space, even visiting another celestial body in person. But before technology made direct exploration possible, we had to use remote methods to map the expanse we could see from Earth.

Created by: The Franklin Institute

Grade 3-8