The Vintage Telescopes from the Moscow Planetarium

Hi!

If you haven't had time to visit the Moscow planetarium yet, then try to do it this summer.

As I have already told you, no less attractive in this tour will be a visit to the installation called "Urania".

This is a fairly large space with interactive demonstrations of the manifestations of various laws of physics.

This is a great place to develop children's curiosity and scientific worldview.

Of course, such a visit would not hurt adults either, since recently the level of education among people has noticeably decreased and there are even those who sincerely believe that the Earth is flat.

A much smaller hall is located one floor above. But here you can view and photograph ancient astronomical artifacts.
The most remarkable thing is that they are in working condition and will continue to serve people further.

I was stuck in front of the display cases with antique telescopes for a very long time. They are small in size (it was apparently still impossible to make large lenses in those days), but they are completely independent of electric power supply. They can be directed into the night sky at any time and they will show what they are capable of.

I was struck by the safety of the devices. Of course, they were in good hands and they were handled by specialists who understood a lot about such complex and fragile devices.

Note how many related mechanisms there are. The telescope had to be correctly positioned on the plane, fixed. And after all, the observations were conducted not just out of curiosity, but at the same time the most complex mathematical calculations were performed.

Personally, I will not be able to figure out the functionality of all the devices included in this antique equipment. So many different scales are simply maddening and make you admire the thinking of ancient astronomers.

Here you can see the products of the famous German company for the production of optical devices "A. Repsold & Söhne". It existed from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. This company made a 14-meter telescope for the Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg. At that time, it was a very large device for studying the starry sky.

The collection of antique telescopes is impressive. Being next to such artifacts, you involuntarily feel how fast time is rushing, and how slowly humanity is moving along the path of knowledge of the world.

Travel farther and longer!