What does «microscopio solar» mean in Spanish?
- A microscope that, in a darkened room, by means of sunlight reflected from a mirror and concentrated by one or more lenses, makes highly magnified images of the objects under examination appear on a white surface. First developed around 1750, solar microscopes became increasingly popular during the following decades. The instruments functioned much like the slide projectors of the 1970s. However, for illumination, instead of using the not-yet-invented light bulb, solar microscopes relied on a movable mirror and lens system to reflect sunlight. The device then projected a much larger image of the microscopic specimen onto the wall of a darkened room.