On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Mirror for Mount Wilson Observatory Telescope
George W. Ritchey American
Not on view
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.
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