History of Astronomy : Topics

History of Astronomy: Topics: Instruments

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General

• Antique Telescope Society
  • Notes and Images of Antique Telescopes
  • A Professional Method for Cleaning Optics, by Robert Ariail
• Scientific and Medical Antique Collecting Guide (25 Apr 2000: disappeared)
  • Clocks/Sundials
  • Maps/Globes
  • Telescopes
• The Gemmary
  Dealer of antique scientific instruments and books. The catalogs are available online.
• Important Astronomers, their Instruments and Discoveries, by Paul M. Rybski
• The Online Register of Scientific Instruments
  Concept demonstration. This will be a very important project also for astronomical instruments.
• Time & Clocks
  • Sundials

Astrolabes

• The Astrolabe
• Astrolabes: Find more documents with Alta Vista
• A Treatise on the Astrolabe, by Geoffrey Chaucer, appr. 1391

Clocks and chronometers

• A Brief History of Clocks: From Thales to Ptolemy, by Jesse Weissman
  A student's course paper
• A History of Clocks, by Michelle Gomes
• The British Clockmaker, Inc.
  Specialists in the Professional Restoration of Antique Clocks, Marine Chronometers, and Automata. Dealers in fine Clocks and Barometers.
• The Astronomical Clock of Richard of Wallingford, by Nicholas Whyte
• Hours and Unequal Hours, by Nicholas Whyte
  On medieval timekeeping.
• History of Clocks: Find more documents with Alta Vista

See also History of Astronomy: Topics: Calendars, Time and Chronology, as well as the sections "General" above and "Sundials" below.

Globes

• The Globe
• Globes - History
• Internationale Coronelli-Gesellschaft für Globen- und Instrumentenkunde (Homepage)

  International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes and Related Instruments

• Internationale Coronelli-Gesellschaft für Globen- und Instrumentenkunde (Info) (Or see here.)
• The House of Coronelli
  Trader of antique globes

Planetaria

• A Brief History of Planetaria
• Geodesic Domes and Charts of the Heavens
  About the history of the planetarium

Sundials

• Development of Sundials in Ancient Civilizations, by Helen Lee
  Egypt, Greece/Rome and China. With photographs, bibliography and glossary.
• A. Laelius Podager, Record of Discovery of Augustus's Sundial
• About Time
  Including photos of antique sundials
• Sundials
  Royal Greenwich Observatory Information Leaflet No. 23
• Pictures of Sundials in The Netherlands
  Including historical sundials.
• The Tercentenary Sundial and the Greenwich Water Tanks
  Royal Greenwich Observatory Information Leaflet No. 1
• Optics instruments: Portable Sun-Dial
• History of the sundial and waterclock, by Marcia J. DeGonda
• Sonnenuhren (in German)
• Some Early Dutch Sundials, by Robert H. van Gent
• Sundials in Berlin and around
• Gli orologi solari (in Italian)
  Sundials in Rome
• Sonnenuhren in Bremen (in German)
  Including various historical sundials.
• Sundials in and around Leeds
• Walter Scott Houston Memorial Sundial at Wesleyan University

• NASS Sundial Links
• Sundial links
• Sundials on the Internet
• Sundials: Find more documents with Alta Vista

Telescopes

• The Telescope
• The Telescope
• The first telescopes
• History of the Telescope
• History of the Telescope
• Telescopes Around The World
  A list of large telescopes
• History of the Carter Observatory Refractor Telescope
• The Fisk Telescope, Middletown, CT, USA
• How Brown's large refractor came into being, by Hendrik J. Gerritsen
  Includes also a general history of telescopes.
• Photographs of American telescopes
• Photographs of American Schmidt telescopes
• The Lassell Telescope, Liverpool, UK
• Thomas Glazebrook Rylands and the 5" inch Cooke Telescope [at Liverpool, UK]
• Scientific Instruments [at Armagh Observatory] and Their Related Correspondence, by John McFarland
  Paper from LISA-II, ESO Garching, 10-12 May 1995
• Schmidt Corrector Plates
  Concerning Bernhard Schmidt's original article
• Fysik og museum: Hauchs physiske Cabinet (Physics and Museum: Hauch's physical Cabinet), by Hemming Andersen
  Summary of a paper from "Nordisk Museologi", 1994/2, s. 31-46/47-52. This paper attempts also to present an historic perspective of the development of angle measuring instruments, including astrolabe, quadrant, octant, sextant, theodolites etc.
• History of telescopes: Find more documents with Alta Vista

Other instruments

• Virtual Museum of Measuring Engines
• Churches as scientific instruments, by J. L. Heilbron
  About solar observations in cathedrals in Bologna, Rome, Florence, and Paris during the 17th and 18th centuries.
• The early thermometer in Denmark, by Erling Poulsen
  Developed by Rømer to compensate for temperatur differences in his astronomical instruments.

Instrument makers and companies

This section includes only workshops, companies, etc. For individual instrument makers, see the directory of persons.

• Dollond
• Ertel
• Filotecnica Salmoiraghi
• Grindel
• Mégnié
• Merz
• Zeiss
• Carl Zeiss - A most respected name in optics

For descriptions of instruments see also:

• History of astronomy: Museums
• History of astronomy: Observatories and other places

Wolfgang R. Dick. Created: 22 Nov 1995. Latest update: 19 Sep 2003