19th Century Day or Night Telescope by George Dolland
This is a large example of a 19th Century telescope by George Dolland. His real name was George Huggins, but he changed it to Dolland, the name of his famous uncle, Peter Dolland. He was born in 1774, and he was apprenticed to Peter in 1788. He took over Peter's business in 1820 when Peter died. George Dolland died in 1856, but their name is still trading under Dolland and Aitchison.
The contracted telescope is shown above.
It has a thick mahogany barrel which is typical of telescopes of around the 1840's.
The eyepiece, shown on the right hand side is well styled, with a curve leading up to the last lens.
The photograph below shows the telescope with it's glare sheild extended. This acts as a dew sheild during the night, as
this telescope is intended both for terrestial and astronomical use.
John Dolland invented the acromatic lens system in the 18th Century. The front lens below is acromatic. An acromatic lens is one which is made in two parts with different refractive index's. This makes the various wavelengths of light all come to the same focus. This reduces false colour in the image. Although this telescope has a relatively large (1 1/2") objective lens, the power is low, giving a wide field of view. This means that for astronomical viewing it is not suitable for use with the planets, but is better for viewing fainter objects such as galaxies and star-clusters. I have found that this superb, large telescope gives very pleasing views of the Andromeda Galaxy, and very clear terrestial views.
Below is a photograph of the engraved signiture. It reads:
Dolland
London
Day or Night
The fact that it runs towards the eyepiece tells us that this telescope was made later than about 1830. "Day or Night" telescopes were made by many telescope makers during the middle of the 19th Century. I believe that this telescope dates from around 1840 as I have seen a similar telescope that was dated 1840 and engraved in the same workshop.
Below is the eyepiece shutter. It is different from many antique telescopes as when it is open it protrudes outside of the casing. Some of the black paint has now peeled off the eyepiece with age.
The completely extended telescope is shown below. There are 3 draws. When the telescope is extended in this way with the glare sheild opened too, it measures 35 7/8" in length. When the telescope is fully collapsed it is 11 1/4" long. The objective lens is 1 5/8" in diameter, but the barrel is 2 1/2" wide.
