Refracting Telescope in the Museum's Observatory

Description

This 10" refracting telescope was built by the Zeiss company for The Franklin Institute's Observatory in the 1930s. The telescope has a "Urania" mounting which keeps the eyepiece steady even when moving the telescope. The eyepieces provide magnifications from 35 to 468 power for both normal-view and wide-field for open cluster observation. The Observatory is covered by a 20 ton steel and glass skylight which can be rolled back quickly exposing the entire sky.

Object Information

Date Created:

1931-1933

Local ID:

FI Catalog # 1437

Collection:

The Franklin Institute Astronomy Collection

Credit Line:

Purchased by The Franklin Institute in 1933

Citation:

Zeiss Refracting Telescope from the collections of The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA. USA

Dimensions:

10" Lens

Creator(s):

Carl Zeiss Optical Works

Materials:

metal, 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