Pick up an astrolabe and you hold the universe in your hand.

Using the position of the sun and stars in our moving cosmos, astrolabes tell the time, do maths — even cast horoscopes.

Did Good Queen Bess turn this astrolabe to see into her future?

A marble copy of a wooden tablet made in 1582 by multi-talented astrologer, mathematician & adviser to Queen Elizabeth I: Dr John Dee.

He used it to explore the natural world by talking with angels.

This elegant microscope was made in 1770 for King George III — an enthusiastic supporter of the sciences.

Is it a work of art — or a tool for doing
science? Or both?

Decide for yourself.

A keen stargazer, painter John Russell was obsessed with the Moon. In 1797, he finished this Moon globe which shows:

lunar libration (the Moon's 'wobbly' orbit of the Earth) and

lunar parallax (how much the Moon 'shifts' relative to the stars when viewed from two far-apart points on Earth).