Object Details
- Merz u. Mahler
- Description
- 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.”
- 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.
- Ref: Myles Jackson, Spectrum of Belief. Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).
- Steven Dick, Sky with Ocean Joined. The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000 (Cambridge and New York, 2003), pp. 64-67.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- ca 1840
- ID Number
- PH.327700
- catalog number
- 327700
- accession number
- 283654
- Object Name
- telescope
- Measurements
- overall: 38 in x 4 3/4 in; 96.52 cm x 12.065 cm
- overall: 38 in x 4 3/4 in; 96.52 cm x 12.065 cm
- place made
- Germany
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- subject
- Astronomy
- Record ID
- nmah_1183753
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-3b35-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
