Leonardo’s telescope…??!?
Giancarlo Truffa recently posted a link to the HASTRO-L mailing list that contains a mention of a surprising claim that Leonardo da Vinci apparently designed a telescope:-
On page 59(b) of Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus appears this drawing. Bülent Atalay proposed in 2005 that it is Leonardo’s “telescope”. The page also contains a “study of light reflection of a concave mirror”.
And here’s the drawing itself:-
Though (perhaps understandably) skeptical of the basic proposition, Giancarlo kindly listed the literature:
- B. Atalay and K. Wamsley “Leonardo’s Universe: The Renaissance World of Leonardo da Vinci” (National Geographic Books, 2009)
- B. Atalay “Math and the Mona Lisa: the Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci” (Smithsonian Books, 2004)
Bülent Atalay was convinced enough by his own arguments to get a modern reproduction built, so maybe this is a proto-telescope… though the odds would seem to be against it. Add it to the (long) list of things that Leonardo may have invented (but probably didn’t)…
February 18th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
The image seen is only part of the page left by Leonardo. On the same sheet in the upper left is a study of reflections of rays of light from a concave reflector. The cylindrical tube itself is meaningless. It might as well be a howitzer or mortar.
Regards,
Bulent
April 26th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Perhaps he wanted to impress by finding a way to repeat the mirrors of Archimedes.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
*Damn – should have checked Wiki first. The point has already been made, a lot!