Georg & Sigmund Merz, Monaco di Baviera, 1863

Georg & Sigmund Merz, Munich, 1863 It was the first telescope bought with funds from the Government of unified Italy. In a letter dated March 30 th 1861, the astronomer Ernesto Capocci asked the minister for Public Education, Francesco De Sanctis, for an achromatic telescope …to discover new planets and comets. The Irpinia intellectual did demonstrate his administration by providing it.
Placed in the Capodimonte eastern dome the telescope was used for studies of multiple stars. In 1870 the telescope was moved to Sicily for the solar eclipse of December 22, and used to perform spectroscopic observations of the solar corona. Visiting the Observatory in February 1877, the emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, pointed this telescope toward the Naples sky. In 1922 the instrument was moved to the private observatory of Giovanbattista Lacchini in Faenza, where it remained for 10 years, being used for an intense observing campaign of variable stars.

INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Museo degli Strumenti Astronomici, inv. 551