- :: Atom & Cosmos
- :: Body & Brain
- :: Earth
- :: Environment
- :: Genes & Cells
- :: Humans
- :: Life
- :: Matter & Energy
- :: Molecules
- :: Science & Society
- :: Other Topics
- :: Science News For Kids
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/43551
•
Subscribe •
In the December 5 Issue:
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Climate might be right for a deal: Copenhagen negotiations will take steps toward a climate-stabilizing treaty
- Botanical Whales: Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too
- Breaking the Speed Limit: Studies examine physiology and technology to better foresee the ultimate edge of human performance
Advertisement
Timeline: Seeing better
In 400 years, telescopes advance from rooftops to mountains to orbit
May 23rd, 2009; Vol.175 #11 (p. 20)
Text Size
1608
Invention of the telescope. Claimed by Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey, although others (including Jacob Metius and Zacharias Janssen) are also sometimes credited.
GALILEO'S TELESCOPE | Istituto e Museo di Storia Della Scienza
1609
Galileo improves the telescope and begins using it for astronomy, starting with lunar observations.
Source: Gary Brown/Photo Researchers Inc
1611
German astronomer Johannes Kepler designs a new telescope using convex lenses.
1616
A concave reflecting telescope is built by Niccolo Zucchi, an Italian Jesuit and physicist.
Source: SPL/Photo Researchers Inc
1655
Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn’s rings and its moon Titan using a Keplerian telescope with an 11-foot focal length.
1663
James Gregory, a Scottish mathematician, describes a new type of reflecting telescope.
Source: Jim Sugar/Corbis
1668
Isaac Newton invents a small but powerful reflecting telescope using mirrors.
1672
Laurent Cassegrain, a French priest, invents a reflecting telescope based on Gregory’s principles.
1675
King Charles II commissions the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England.
1781
Astronomer William Herschel uses a reflecting telescope to discover the planet Uranus; he later builds more powerful telescopes with which he discovers several moons of Uranus. Herschel’s largest telescope has a focal length of 40 feet.
1839
Harvard College Observatory is established in Cambridge, Mass.
Source: Wolfgang Steinicke
1845
In Ireland, William Parsons builds the Leviathan, a reflecting telescope with a mirror that is 6 feet in diameter. He uses it to discover the spiral structure of the nebula M51.
1908
The Hale reflecting telescope is constructed atop Mount Wilson in California. At that time, it was the world’s largest telescope.
1917
The 100-inch Hooker reflecting telescope is completed at Mount Wilson. It ranks as the world’s largest telescope for the next 30 years.
1937
Grote Reber, an American radio engineer, builds the first telescope designed to observe the radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
1946
British astronomer Martin Ryle builds an interferometer for making radio observations of space.
Source: Bettman/Corbis
1948
The 200-inch Hale reflecting telescope is built at the Mount Palomar observatory in California.
Source: Raymond S. Kleboe, Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
1957
A 250-foot radio telescope is completed in England at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, which was established by Bernard Lovell in 1945.
1959
Optical telescopes are launched into space on the Vanguard II satellite.
1967
Construction begins on an observatory complex atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.
1968
The 10-meter Whipple telescope is built at Mount Hopkins in Arizona to study gamma rays.
1980
The Very Large Array of radio telescopes is completed near Soccoro, N.M., by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
1989
COBE — the Cosmic Background Explorer — is launched, designed to measure the cosmic microwave background radiation.
1990
The Hubble Space Telescope launches from the space shuttle Discovery. The first of NASA’s four Great Observatory telescopes, it is designed to collect information from the ultraviolet through near-infrared portions of the electromagnetic magnetic spectrum.
Source: NASA
1991
NASA launches the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the second in the Great Observatory series.
1993
The first of the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea —the largest optical and infrared telescopes — is completed.
Source: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis
1996
The second of the Keck twins is completed.
1997
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is built at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, testing a new cost-effective instrument design.
1999
The Chandra X-ray Observatory, the third Great Observatory, is launched from the shuttle Columbia.
2001
NASA launches the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe to map background radiation. Data it collects help revise the universe’s age to 13.7 billion years.
2003
The Spitzer Space Telescope, the last Great Observatory, launches via a Delta rocket. It measures the thermal infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
2009
The Planck telescope, set to launch in mid-May, will measure radiation left over from the Big Bang with high precision (SN: 4/11/09, p. 16).
Invention of the telescope. Claimed by Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey, although others (including Jacob Metius and Zacharias Janssen) are also sometimes credited.
GALILEO'S TELESCOPE | Istituto e Museo di Storia Della Scienza
1609
Galileo improves the telescope and begins using it for astronomy, starting with lunar observations.
Source: Gary Brown/Photo Researchers Inc
1611
German astronomer Johannes Kepler designs a new telescope using convex lenses.
1616
A concave reflecting telescope is built by Niccolo Zucchi, an Italian Jesuit and physicist.
Source: SPL/Photo Researchers Inc
1655
Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn’s rings and its moon Titan using a Keplerian telescope with an 11-foot focal length.
1663
James Gregory, a Scottish mathematician, describes a new type of reflecting telescope.
Source: Jim Sugar/Corbis
1668
Isaac Newton invents a small but powerful reflecting telescope using mirrors.
1672
Laurent Cassegrain, a French priest, invents a reflecting telescope based on Gregory’s principles.
1675
King Charles II commissions the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England.
1781
Astronomer William Herschel uses a reflecting telescope to discover the planet Uranus; he later builds more powerful telescopes with which he discovers several moons of Uranus. Herschel’s largest telescope has a focal length of 40 feet.
1839
Harvard College Observatory is established in Cambridge, Mass.
Source: Wolfgang Steinicke
1845
In Ireland, William Parsons builds the Leviathan, a reflecting telescope with a mirror that is 6 feet in diameter. He uses it to discover the spiral structure of the nebula M51.
1908
The Hale reflecting telescope is constructed atop Mount Wilson in California. At that time, it was the world’s largest telescope.
1917
The 100-inch Hooker reflecting telescope is completed at Mount Wilson. It ranks as the world’s largest telescope for the next 30 years.
1937
Grote Reber, an American radio engineer, builds the first telescope designed to observe the radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
1946
British astronomer Martin Ryle builds an interferometer for making radio observations of space.
Source: Bettman/Corbis
1948
The 200-inch Hale reflecting telescope is built at the Mount Palomar observatory in California.
Source: Raymond S. Kleboe, Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
1957
A 250-foot radio telescope is completed in England at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, which was established by Bernard Lovell in 1945.
1959
Optical telescopes are launched into space on the Vanguard II satellite.
1967
Construction begins on an observatory complex atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.
1968
The 10-meter Whipple telescope is built at Mount Hopkins in Arizona to study gamma rays.
1980
The Very Large Array of radio telescopes is completed near Soccoro, N.M., by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
1989
COBE — the Cosmic Background Explorer — is launched, designed to measure the cosmic microwave background radiation.
1990
The Hubble Space Telescope launches from the space shuttle Discovery. The first of NASA’s four Great Observatory telescopes, it is designed to collect information from the ultraviolet through near-infrared portions of the electromagnetic magnetic spectrum.
Source: NASA
1991
NASA launches the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the second in the Great Observatory series.
1993
The first of the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea —the largest optical and infrared telescopes — is completed.
Source: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis
1996
The second of the Keck twins is completed.
1997
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is built at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, testing a new cost-effective instrument design.
1999
The Chandra X-ray Observatory, the third Great Observatory, is launched from the shuttle Columbia.
2001
NASA launches the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe to map background radiation. Data it collects help revise the universe’s age to 13.7 billion years.
2003
The Spitzer Space Telescope, the last Great Observatory, launches via a Delta rocket. It measures the thermal infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
2009
The Planck telescope, set to launch in mid-May, will measure radiation left over from the Big Bang with high precision (SN: 4/11/09, p. 16).
Advertisement
Suggested Reading:
- Details on the Planck mission launched May 14: [Go to]
Reader Favorites:
- Invisibility Uncloaked
- Aping the Stone Age
- The Science of Slumber
- FOR KIDS: Batteries built by viruses
- SN Special : Darwin turns 200
SN on the Web:
 |
|
 |
Site originally developed by Confluent Forms LLC, some elements © 2001 - 2009
This time line is not very well written and has some errors.
The HST error that's in the print edition has been corrected in the online version.
The 1611 entry about Kepler inventing a telescope using convex lenses implies the Galileo telescope used something else. The Galileo scope certainly had convex lenses. It would have been nice it noted the differences between the two.
Please login or register to participate.