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History of the Telescope
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Earliest known Working Telescope.
The first refracting telescopes were made using convex lenses and concave eye pieces Lenses are pieces of glass that are ground and molded carefully to make them transparent. They also bend the light based upon how they are curved. -
Hans Lippershey
The eyeglass maker given credit for the first known refracting telescope. -
Gallileo's Refractor
Galileo made modifications of Hans Lippershey's telescope and created the Galileo Refactor. He used math to calculate the distances between the lenses to get the clearest images. He also put it on a stand to keep it steady. they magnified objects about 30 times. -
Newton's Reflector Created
Newton created a more powerful telescope that removed the colored rings (chromatic aberrations) from around objects seen through the telescope. He did this by replacing the primary with a metal mirror. With this discovery he created a new class of telescopes called reflectors. -
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Era of the Great Refractors
Refracting telescopes bend the light as it passes through the primary lens. The point where the light focuses is behind the lens. To do this the lenses had to be convex - which means to bulge outward. -
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Era of the Early Reflector Telescopes
These telescopes use mirrors to reflect the light back to a spot in front of them. To do this the mirror shape must be concave, rather than convex. -
Sir William Herschel's Reflectors
Herschel was a German musician who loved astronomy. He wanted a larger reflector, but they didn't make any. So he made one himself. He started with a six inch mirror and worked his way up to a 42 inch mirror. To work, the telescope had to be 40 feet long. He designed his Reflectors to no longer need a second mirror -
George Ellery Hale Invents the Snow Solar Telescope
He wanted to study the sun, so he built a new type of telescope that used a move-able mirror. With these telescopes he was able to show that sunspots are associated with magnetic fields. -
Grote Reber invents the Reber Radio Telescope
This is the first telescope to map the Milky Way using radio waves. (1942) Today satellite TV uses the same radio wave methodology as Reber's radio telescope. Today -
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Era of the Radio Telescopes
These telescopes were based on Karl Jansky's discovery of radio waves -
COBE Space Telescope
the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) is launched into space to create maps of the sky using infrared and microwave radiation. It was only in space for four years, but did provide evidence supporting the Big Bang Theory. -
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Era of Space Telescopes
Telescopes become satellites
