Mirror for Mount Wilson Observatory Telescope
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.Ritchey, an astrophotographer and optician, constructed telescopic lenses and mirrors of an unprecedented size at the turn of the twentieth century. His disks for the reflecting telescopes at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles reached one hundred inches in diameter. This photograph shows a Mount Wilson disk atop the grinding machine in Ritchey’s optical laboratory, its shimmering surface giving it the appearance of a celestial body brought to earth.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mirror for Mount Wilson Observatory Telescope
- Artist: George W. Ritchey (American, Tuppers Plains, Ohio 1864–1945 Azusa, California)
- Date: ca. 1901
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Randy and Yulia G. Liebermann Lunar and Planetary Exploration Collection
- Curatorial Department: Photographs