Model, Reflecting Telescope (Perkins Telescope Model)

This is a brass working model of a combination Newtonian/Cassegrain reflecting telescope, mounted on an English equatorial cross-axis on a wooden stand. The model has a 4.5-inch mirror set in a open ribbed cage. The equatorial mounting has a spring wound drive. According to its donor it was constructed between 1913 and 1915 as a demonstration device to raise funds for building a large telescope in Ohio, and was on display in the Capitol rotunda in 1915. The scale model came into the possession of a science professor at Chabot College in California when George V. Simon, M.D. acquired it in 1978. Simon claims that the model foreshadowed the design of the Perkins 69-inch telescope of Ohio Wesleyan University now remounted at Flagstaff with a 72-inch mirror.

Simon donated the telescope model to NASM in 1982.