A Peep down the Melbourne Telescope.

A$880 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Title from printed caption in negative]. Circa 1870. Stereoscopic silver albumen print photographs, each individual image 68 x 72 mm, on yellow board mount 83 x 166 mm, with the publisher s serial number and caption in the negative at far right edge 685. A Peep down the Melbourne Telescope , along with the publisher s imprint A. Pumphrey, Birmingham , verso blank; both the prints (which appear slightly different as they were taken a few seconds apart) are in fine condition; the mount is clean and stable. A rare and important early stereoscopic view of the Great Melbourne Telescope. The top-hatted gentleman partially obscured at the far end of the telescope is almost certainly the astronomer Albert Le Sueur, its first Observer (1869-70). The photographer is, unfortunately, unidentified, but the image particularly when viewed in 3-D is a true artistic achievement that dramatically succeeds in capturing the complexity of what was arguably the most advanced piece of scientific technology in the southern hemisphere at the time. The only example of this photograph traced in Australia collections is held in the National Library of Australia. The Great Melbourne Telescope was an important icon for nineteenth-century Melbourne, signifying a transition from a colonial outpost to a progressive city with an interest in science and astronomy. The telescope is now being restored to its original 1869 condition, as a fully functional observational telescope, to be returned to Melbourne Obse

• Binding: Hardcover

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