Ancient Telescopes

September 28, 2018 by joachim

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The first Ancient Telescope that I discovered, depicted at the bottom, exists on the beach of the Olympic Peninsula. I reported its discovery years ago in COWBIRD (the social media platform that closed on March 31, 2017, but is still accessible).  This wooden Telescope will have weathered a bit more, and the part of the beach in its precise sight will have changed significantly, but overall I expect the Telescope to be intact, and still functioning with its magnification of 1:1.

I discovered the second Ancient Telescope, depicted at the top, on Sandy Hook Island in New Jersey. Unlike the first one it is made of concrete.  I marveled at the precision with which it points at an area that includes all three prime elements: earth, water, sky.  Again the precise magnification is calibrated at 1:1.  What is somewhat unusual here is the elliptic optics, with the horizontal axis of the air lens almost aligned with the line of the horizon.

We cannot help but admire the ingenuity of people who gave us this early unmagnified yet dignified and precise vision of our immediate surroundings.

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