Museo Galileo
italiano
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Virtual Museum
Terrestrial telescope
    • Setting:
      Room IX
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Place:
      Italian
    • Date:
      second half 17th cent.
    • Materials:
      cardboard, paper
    • Dimensions:
      length 1220 mm
    • Inventory:
      3493
    • Terrestrial telescope (Inv. 3493)
    • Terrestrial telescope (Inv. 3493)

Terrestrial telescope consisting of five cardboard tubes. The largest, covered with green paper, contains the biconvex objective in a wooden mount. The other tubes are covered with marbled paper. The fifth draw tube contains a small two-part housing for three biconvex lenses forming the compound eyepiece. The quality of the glass and the characteristics of the compound eyepiece suggest that this is an Italian instrument of the late seventeenth century.