Museo Galileo
italiano
Virtual Museum
Amici I telescope
    • Setting:
      Room XIV
    • Maker:
      Giovanni Battista Amici
    • Place:
      Italy
    • Date:
      first half 19th cent.
    • Materials:
      wood, brass
    • Dimensions:
      length 5210 mm
    • Inventory:
      3795
    • Amici I telescope (Inv. 3795)
    • Amici I telescope (Inv. 3795)

Tube made by the cabinet-maker Ponziani for the objective called Amici I, now preserved at the Arcetri Observatory. Ponziani repeatedly applied to the director of the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale of Florence, Vincenzo Antinori, for permission to make the tube in three sections. Giovanni Battista Amici, who was in London at the time, gave his consent and recommended covering the joints between the sections with brass bands to make them more rigid. The conical tube narrows toward the focal plane, where the objective forms the images of the astronomical objects being observed. The plane can accommodate either eyepieces for direct observation, or instruments such as cameras and spectroscopes. The telescope is, in fact, equipped with a spectroscope (inv. 1394). For easier focusing, there is a focusing mechanism to lengthen or shorten the final section of the base.