A few British Museum Astronomy Exhibits

July 30, 2006

Photos from the British Museum of interesting astronomy artifacts.

The front entrance to the British Museum.

A set of telescope tubes made by the Italian Eustancio Discini in the 17th century.
Each end of the tubes were fitted with lenses which were stored separately.

An orrery - a mechanical model of the solar system - which was made around 1750
as a replica of the grand orrery of King George II. An orrery was used to demonstrate
Copernicus's theory that the earth and planets revolve around the sun.

An close-up of the orrery.

An observation in stone of Halley's comet from 164 BC.
At that time, Babylonian diaries were created in stone to recorded daily oberservations.
The diaries from 164-163 BC contain entries of sightings of the comet.