This achromatic telescope has a leather-covered barrel and a single brass draw tube. The other brass fittings include an objective cap with a sliding cover and a sliding eyepiece cover. The maker's name is inscribed on the draw tube as 'T. Harris & Son, / London / Day or Night'

Night and day telescopes were commonly used on board ship. As the name suggests, they could be used in the dark because they had relatively large objective lenses to collect the maximum amount of light in poor seeing conditions.

A second inscription, on a collar around the barrel, reads 'John Fryer, / H.M.S. BOUNTY, 1787.' The style of the telescope suggests, however, that it was made after 1787. It is possible that the inscription was added at the time of Fryer's death in 1817.