"It's a lunascope, old boy -- no more messing around with moon charts, see?"

--Unnamed wizard in Diagon Alley (PA4)

Lunascope

A valuable astronomical instrument which shows the phases of the moon.

The lunascope was invented by Perpetua Fancourt (FW).

Newt Scamander brought a beautiful metal lunascope with him to New York. He tried to trade it to Gnarlak for his help, but Gnarlak is uninterested and says that he already owns five (WFT).

Lunascopes were apparently for sale somewhere in Diagon Alley during the summer before Harry's third year at Hogwarts (PA4).

Dumbledore kept a lunascope in his office (OP37).

Commentary

Etymology

"luna" meaning moon (Latin)
"scope" from "scopy", meaning "to study" (Greek)

Notes

Newt's lunascope is described as "a beautiful metal instrument" (WFT). However, it is unclear whether all lunascopes look like this or if Newt's is particularly fancy. At any rate, it must be somewhat valuable if he thought he could use it to barter with Gnarlak. Since its inventor, Perpetua Fancourt, was only born in 1900 (FW), the lunascope was likely a pretty new piece of technology in 1926. That being said, one can infer that it might have still been prized and rare in 1993 (PA4). -BB

Pensieve (Comments)

Tags: astronomy beauty/beautiful metals moon useful valuable

Editors: and