Ask a local astronomy club for help.

It's hard to tell the eyepieces apart.

Astronomy?? I would say it's a microscope "set" minus the microscope.

Mayhbe sometbhing like this...

Here is a link that might be useful: microscope

thanks for the replies.. it looks most like the microscope stuff from Lindac's link, but the large glass piece makes me think it might be parts for a telescope.

It is for a telescope.

Those are various eyepieces, and a lens.

There is no difference in the eyepieces of telescopes or microscopes. They are essentially interchangeable other than the barrel size is often different, with microscopes having the smaller barrel size. Those are vintage eyepieces probably from around the sixties. You tell me the barrel size, and I can probably tell you if they're microscope or telescope. They may be neither actually because many measuring devices used use optical lenses. My father has a monster lens in his collection at least five times the size of the one in that box. He worked in optics in a photography laboratory for awhile. I have no clue what it was used for an never asked, even though I used to play with it when I was a kid.

thanks calliope! I'm not sure how to measure the barrel size but they are are 3" in circumference all the way around (at the bottom, not at the top where the markings are), and they are 7/8" in diameter also at the bottom, 1 1/16" diameter at the top where the marking are.

It leans toward microscope then. Just to substantiate it, I asked an amateur astronomer who is familiar with that sort of equipment, and has published several books, her opinion of them. She said probably microscope, but also said it was just a guess, since Unitron makes lenses for both. Ran that through a search engine and found this site. Looks like that is what they are calling a similar set, and they sell optics.

Here is a link that might be useful: eyepiece set

If the large round glass is flat, it could be for a microscope stage.

thanks so much everyone for your help!