spacetime machine

This is the refracting telescope on top of the Tate physics building on the U of M campus. This is an amazing piece of equipment--not because it's particularly powerful (at 10 inches in diameter, you can buy an equally powerful scope for $500 these days), but because it's over 100 years old. The objective lens (the one at the top end of the tube) is the original glass. It was built in 1895 for the U's astro department by the same company that built Yerkes Observatory in southern Wisconsin, which remains to this day the largest refracting telescope in the world. This scope is open for public viewing every Friday night--you guys should stop by sometime.