Two Telescopes

These two different types of telescope date from a similar time period and were made by important instrument makers. They differ in their methods of focusing distant light from the stars: one uses lenses to refract (bend) incoming light, the other has mirrors to reflect light.

The Whipple Museum can offer on-site learning sessions for secondary school groups on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, subject to availability. Session times are 10-11.30 and 1-2.30. The morning session gives exclusive access to the museum for your class and the afternoon session takes place while the museum is open to the public.Our maximum group size is 45, split into three groups of 15. Sessions typically last up to an hour and a half and include practical activities, information about objects and a chance to ask questions. Home educating families are welcome to book any of the schools sessions, there are no minimum numbers. Contact Alison Giles, our learning coordinator, on are26@cam.ac.uk to discuss how we can help you. 

The Art and Science of Light

Key themes: Art and Science

Age range: KS3

This session will focus in optical scientific instruments from the museum's collection exploring their ability to change how we see the world around us. Students will have the opportunity to sketch their own observations under a microscope, explore 2D and 3D by using stereoscopic viewers and look at other optical scientific instruments such as telescopes.

Duration: 90 minutes. Break down of content: 30 minute taught session + 30 minute handling + 30 sketching in galleries.

Science, Exploration and Empire

Key themes: History, Science

Age range: KS3 and KS4

Via gallery investigation, source analysis and discussion, students will get a glimpse of science from the diverse perspectives of colonial forces and native peoples. After being led around our collections by a museum teacher, students will be given sources and objects in order to prepare presentations on how colonialism and Empire affected science and vice versa.

Duration: 90 minutes. Break down of content: 30 minute taught session + 30 minute case study preparation + 30 minute presentation and discussion

Medicine and Anatomy through Time

Key themes: History, Science, Medicine

Age range: KS4

Students will be able to explore how revolutionary discoveries affected the development of new medical and anatomical knowledge. They will study the tools of the medical trade from the Renaissance to the 19th century, revealing the impact of key figures including Andreas Vesalius and important techniques such as trepanation. In collaboration with the Whipple library, they will then be encouraged to investigate and analyse important medical texts from different eras and make conclusions about what influenced their authors and illustrators.

Duration: 90 minutes. Break down of content: 30 minute taught session + 30 minute textual analysis + 30 minutes free time.

Modelling Science

Key themes: Double award Science GCSE, Single Award Science GCSE, History

Age range: KS4

From an enormous protein structure to plaster casts of chicken heads, students will see models spanning different scientific fields, dating from the 18^th century to the 20^th. They will learn about the importance of models in scientific investigations and discoveries throughout Biology, Chemistry and Physics. They will analyse the representation of concepts including electricity and genetic inheritance, have an in-depth look at the history of molecular models, and operate a mechanical model of the solar system.

Duration: 90 minutes. Break down of content: 30 minutes gallery teaching + 30 minutes activity + 30 minutes free time in galleries

The Whipple Museum can offer on-site learning sessions for post-16 groups on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, subject to availability. Session times are 10-11.30 and 1-2.30. The morning session gives exclusive access to the museum for your class and the afternoon session takes place while the museum is open to the public.Our maximum group size is 45, split into three groups of 15. Sessions typically last up to an hour and a half and include practical activities, information about objects and a chance to ask questions. Home educating families are welcome to book any of the schools sessions, there are no minimum numbers. Contact Alison Giles, our learning coordinator, on are26@cam.ac.uk to discuss how we can help you. 

Darwin, Evolution and the Origin of Species

Key themes: Science and History

Age range: A-level and post-16

Using the collections housed at the Whipple Museum and Whipple Library, this gallery- taught session focuses on the impact and legacy of the theory of evolution by natural selection. It will also provide students with an insight into how science works, including Charles Darwin's engagement with the wider scientific community and the observational basis of his theory. As part of the session, students will have the opportunity to use a range of nineteenth and twentieth Century microscopes. This session is suitable for students at Key Stage 4 onwards and ideal for both the AQA and OCR GCSE and A-Level syllabuses.

Duration: 60 minutes. Break down of content: 15 minutes in galleries + 45 minute workshop

Modelling Science

Key themes: Chemistry, Biology, Physics, History

Age range: KS4 and KS5

From an enormous protein structure to plaster casts of chicken heads, students will see models spanning different scientific fields, dating from the 18^th century to the 20^th. They will learn about the importance of models in scientific investigations and discoveries throughout Biology, Chemistry and Physics. They will analyse the representation of concepts including electricity and genetic inheritance, have an in-depth look at the history of molecular models, and operate a mechanical model of the solar system.

Duration: 90 minutes. Break down of content: 30 minutes gallery teaching + 30 minutes activity + 30 minutes free time in galleries

The Whipple Museum, together with other University of Cambridge Museums and Collections, runs free drop in events for families and children throughout the year. Visit the University of Cambridge Museums website for further details and events listings.

We also have a range of family activities available all year round:

• The Victorian Parlour - explore the drawers to find 19th-century activities and games with a scientific theme, design your own animations using the zoetrope or look at early 3D images with the stereoscopic viewer.
• Whipple Adventure boxes: In the Learning Gallery you will find handling boxes with activities inspired by objects in the Museum's collection. Can you work as a team to solve the puzzles in each box?
• Whipple Adventure Bags: In the mood for an adventure? Try out our new Adventure Bags full of surprises and activities to do in the galleries. Each bag will take you on a different adventure across the Museum - come in to find out what yours will be!
• Explore - find out more about our collections online, through images and articles on a range of themes from astronomy to frogs.

A 'beautifully brilliant telescope'

This telescope (Image 1) is a refracting telescope. Glass lenses are used to bring the light of distant objects into focus, magnifying them. Different colours of light are refracted (bent) through different angles. For this reason, images seen through a refracting telescope may suffer from a type of colourful distortion, known as chromatic aberration.

Read more: aberration (in microscopes)

The body of the telescope with The maker's mark of Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800), a famous 18th-century astronomical instrument maker, is inscribed on the body of the telescope. A later handwritten label is stuck to the inside of the telescope's box, explaining that the instrument was collected for its beauty and rarity as well as its optical ability:

"This excellent little telescope was made by Mr Ramsden for the Honble Mr Stewart McKenzie

- only three of this size were ever made. It is the most complete portable instrument I have ever seen - beautifully brilliant as a day telescope - & shews double stars in the finest style."

"Stewart McKenzie" may have been James Stuart MacKenzie, (1719-1800) the politician and amateur astronomer. He was the brother of the Prime Minister John Stuart; the brothers' intimacy with the King was disliked by Members of Parliament. James McKenzie left politics in 1780 and dedicated himself to science.

A Royal reflecting telescope

One of the most prominent objects on display in the Main Gallery of the Whipple Museum is the 'Herschel' telescope (above). It is a reflecting telescope, using curved and flat mirrors to reflect light and form a magnified image. As lenses are not used, reflecting telescopes do not suffer from chromatic aberration.

The telescope takes its name from William Herschel (1738-1822), who achieved public acclaim and royal favour through his discovery of the planet Uranus. He originally called the planet the Georgium Sidus (Latin for 'George's Star'), to honour King George III in 1781.

A few years later George III requested that Herschel make a number of telescopes. The Whipple Museum's example is one of five 10ft reflecting telescopes made in response to that request. Following Herschel's standard design, the King's cabinet maker constructed the mahogany stand and tube. Herschel made the optical parts himself.

Previous owners of the reflecting telescope

The history of the Whipple's Herschel telescope has been well documented. George III presented it to George Spencer, the fourth Duke of Marlborough in 1786, saying "I can answer for the excellency of this instrument, having twice compared it to the one in my possession".(1) It was held in the Observatory at Blenheim Palace until it was given to Herschel's great-grandson, Joseph Hardcastle (1868-1917). The Hardcastle family then sold it to Howard Marryat in 1927 who then gave it to Robert Whipple in 1944, to mark the foundation of his gift of 2000 scientific instruments and books to the University of Cambridge.

When the telescope was in the possession of Joseph Hardcastle he sent the mirrors to be examined by Sir Howard Grubb, who worked on the optics of periscopes for the Royal Navy during the first World War. In a letter written to Hardcastle he described the large relecting mirror's optics as 'good' (see Image 2 for a sketch drawn by Grubb). Rather than the aesthetic qualities of his great-grand father's telescope, Hardcastle was interested in how well the optics still worked.

Read more: another telescope with accompanying handwritten instruction sheet