The optics, leather and gold tooling of the telescope suggest how scientific instruments were crafted with a combination of engineering expertise and bookbinding arts. Galileo’s telescope included two lenses, an ocular lens near the eye, and an objective lens at the far end of the tube. The lenses were secured within separate tubes, one inside the other, which might “telescope” the instrument longer or shorter as need be to the appropriate focal length. Galileo improved the telescope by crafting his own lenses, grinding a more convex objective lens than the ones available for spectacles. (On display in Bizzell Memorial Library, Fall 2015; Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Spring 2016.)