54-55. Two Astronomical Cameras, c. 1854

Unsigned.

Two of the three astronomical cameras in the Museum's collection used by Warren De la Rue to take photographs of the moon by means of wet-collodion photography, a method he pioneered in the early 1850s. The photographic apparatus was attached to his 13-inch reflecting telescope of 10-foot focal length. The larger version is for plates 100 x 100 mm, and the smaller for plates 45 x 45 mm. Both have rack and pinion focusing and have brackets so that they could be mounted across the top of the tube of the telescope.

Two glass wet-collodion lunar images taken by Warren De la Rue are on show (Item 73).

Length 95 mm, diameter 150 mm, and length 75, diameter 65 mm.
Inventory nos 73,104 and 81,324.