Being Galileo

[Moonshane]

Here's my notes and a pic of the little masks I made for a little fun experiment the other night.

[John]

Interesting experiment Shane 

I guess Galileo's refractors would have CA and some other aberrations to contend with too being hand ground singlets.

When you look at the observations made by the great astronomers of yore and realise what equipment they were using, admiration for what they accomplished can only grow

[Macavity]

Great stuff!

Years ago, trying to emulating SPM, I once made up his classic "spectacle lens telescope".

My dad "donated" a One Dioptre "supplementary" (close-up) lens from his ancient bellows camera. With my microscope eyepieces it gave a maximum (estimated) 120(!)x40 scope. The views of the moon were... "electrifying"! - Highly (false) coloured? If I recall, it proved quasi-impossible to keep bloomin' thing (hand held) in the field.

My friendly neighbourhood optician learned of my experiments and gifted me a 2" +1D spectacle lens blank. Eagerly, I planned the upgrade to a whole 60mm aperture! Unfortunately (of course) being a meniscus lens, I learned of (was ultimately defeated by) spherical aberration? 

But Happy Days! I see there now (still) exist whole sets of (flat / bi-convex?) close up lenses...

http://www.alanwood.net/photography/close-up-lenses.html

[Schorhr]

Neat!

Low tech version;

Student's version :-)