Telescope (Comet Seeker)
date: label: date made
content: ca 1840
name: label: maker
content: Merz u. Mahler
notes: label: Description
content: A comet seeker is a refracting telescope with a relatively short focal length and a relatively wide field of view. This example was installed at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., around 1843, and came to the Smithsonian in 1966. New it cost $320. It has an achromatic objective of 3.9 inches aperture. The tube is wood with brass fittings, and measures 38 inches long. The inscription reads “Utzschneider und Fraunhofer / in München / ausgeführt von Merz u. Mahler.”
label: Description
content: Joseph Fraunhofer was a German optician who worked in partnership with Joseph Utzschneider from 1815 until his death in 1826. Thirteen years later, this optical firm was sold to Merz u. Mahler, an instrument firm in Munich that specialized in astronomical instruments, and that remained in business, as such, until 1845.
label: Description
content: Ref: Myles Jackson, <i>Spectrum of Belief. Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics</i> (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).
label: Description
content: Steven Dick, <i>Sky with Ocean Joined. The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000</i> (Cambridge and New York, 2003), pp. 64-67.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany
topic: label: Subject
content: Astronomy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Naval Observatory
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.327700
label: catalog number
content: 327700
label: accession number
content: 283654
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telescope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 38 in x 4 3/4 in; 96.52 cm x 12.065 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 38 in x 4 3/4 in; 96.52 cm x 12.065 cm