Can anyone identify this story for me?

[Bascule]

A real long shot this I'm afraid! Not a lot to go on but:

I'm trying to find the name and author of a book (or short story) that my Father read as a boy but has forgotten the details of.

I may not have this quite right but apparently it was about 2 men who were each independently developing more and more powerful optical instruments (or maybe they were just building the first ones, not sure). One, a telescope and the other a microscope. The culmination of the story was that these men where each peering through their respective instruments. One trying to see the farthest reaches of the universe and the other, the surface of the smallest microscopic particles when they both realised that they could each see the other looking back at them!

If this rings bells with anyone I'd love to hear from you.

 

[Mark Robson]

Hmm! It's not set the chimes ringing for me, I'm afraid. However, there is probably someone here who will be quick to leap in and show their superior knowledge of Science Fiction. Welcome to Chronicles. I hope someone can help you.

 

[Bascule]

I hope so too. And thanks for the welcome.

 

[dwndrgn]

Hmmm...no bells ringing here either. However, I get the feeling that this is something that was published in the 50's or 60's - it has that kind of feel. I'd check with the magazines - Amazing Stories, Locus...um, I'm sure there are more. I'm not as up on the scifi stuff as many of the members here are. If checking the magazines doesn't work, try the major authors like Clarke, Asimov, et al.

Good luck, and welcome!

 

[steve12553]

I could see that as a Ray Bradbury story or one by Frederic Brown but I've not read it so I couldn't really guess.

 

[GOLLUM]

Sorry no idea but I think Dwndrgn is probably closest to the bullseye, certainly has that feel about it from your description.

Pity you can't remember the name of a character or object or location in the story itself.