Telescope

Object Details

Nairne, Edward

Description

Samuel Williams (1743-1817), Harvard graduate, minister and, for several years, the Hollis Professor at Harvard, used this telescope to observe the most important astronomical event of the eighteenth century: the 1769 Transit of Venus across the face of the sun. He also used it to observe several lunar eclipses and one partial solar eclipse in the 1770s.

The "Nairne London 1.5/209 = 480" inscription on the tube means that this telescope was made by Edward Nairne (1726-1806). It also indicates that it has a focal length of 1.5 feet and was the 209th Nairne instrument of this size and the 480th Nairne telescope overall. A correlation of serial numbers and dates indicates that this example was made in 1768 or 1769.

Ref: Samuel Williams, "An Account of the Transit of Venus over the June, June 3d, 1769, as observed at Newbury, in Massachusetts," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 2 (1786): 246-251.

Williams, "Astronomical Observations made in the State of Massachusetts," Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1 (1785): 81-124, on 86.

Gerard l'E. Turner, "The Number Code on Reflecting Telescopes by Nairne and Blunt," Journal for the History of Astronomy 10 (1979): 177-184.

Location

Currently not on view

Currently not on view (cover; lense; lense discs; threaded ring to lense)

ca. 1769

1768-1769

ID Number

2007.0070.01

catalog number

2007.0070.01

accession number

2007.0070

Object Name

telescope

Physical Description

metal, brass (overall material)

Measurements

tube: 12 in x 18 in x 9 in x 2 in; 30.48 cm x 45.72 cm x 22.86 cm x 5.08 cm

place made

United Kingdom: England, London

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences

National Museum of American History

subject

Science & Scientific Instruments

Revolutionary War

Record ID

nmah_1330329

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-3823-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa