Galileo Telescope adding Gold decorations

A 2 minute unedited video of the stamping operation. Rhoda is using an enlarged photograph, one of dozens of the original telescope we took along with measurements at the IMSS in Florence Italy, to help guide this work. To left is a hot plate to heat the die. To its right is a water soaked pad to aid in setting its temperature. One can see the placement of the gold foil under the "T" square. and the embossing process. The telescope is indexed by hand to next location and the process is repeated There are over 400 impressions.
We have been asked why not speed up this operation by any one of a dozen ways saving time and money. We considered most of them but in the end the most visible thing about the telescope, these decoration, in our view, would have been seriously compromised for museum use .

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Galileo
• Telescope
• making