William Herschel 40 Foot Telescope, 1880s
William Herschel's 40 foot telescope, also known as the Great Forty Foot telescope, was a reflecting telescope constructed between 1785 and 1789 at Observatory House in Slough, England. It used a 47 inch diameter primary mirror with a 1, 200 cm focal length. It was the largest telescope in the world for 50 years. It may have been used to discover Enceladus and Mimas, the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn. It was dismantled in 1840; today the original mirror and a 10 foot section of the tube remain
Picture No
12698310
Media ID
48540199
Size
3739px x 3956px
(7.9MB)
Credit
Science Source/Mary Evans
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Astronomic Astronomical Colorised Colorization Diagram Enhancement Forty German-anglo German-british Herschel Knighted Reflecting Reflector Telescope
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