Telescope
Telescope
- Description
- H. Page Bailey was a dentist in Riverside, California, who became interested in telescope making when a cash-strapped patient paid his bill with a 12-inch telescope. In 1932, Bailey attended a meeting of the Riverside Astronomical Society at which D.O. Hendrix, an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, discussed Bernhard Schmidt’s recently-published paper on photographic telescopes. That talk inspired Bailey to build this f/2.5 instrument. It is the first Schmidt telescope made in the United States, and the first one made by anyone else other than Bernhard Schmidt himself. The mount is made from an automobile frame.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- telescope
- Measurements
- overall: 52 in; 132.08 cm
- overall: 76 in x 103 in x 35 in; 193.04 cm x 261.62 cm x 88.9 cm
- ID Number
- PH.334722.01
- catalog number
- 334722
- accession number
- 312745
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. We apologize for the interruption. If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. If you require a personal response, please use our Contact page.