Telescope Timeline

  • Period: to

    Telescope History

  • Hans Lippershey invented telescope

    Hans Lippershey invented telescope
    The telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey.
  • Galileo looked at sky

    Galileo looked at sky
    In Italy, Galileo Galilei looked at the sky with a telescope, finding out many things. One is that the moon has crators. Others are that Jupiter is a sphere, Jupiter has moons, Venus appears to change shape so it goes around the sun, and Saturn has "ears" (which are actually its rings).
  • Saturn- A ring

    Saturn- A ring
    Christann Huyges proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a solid, "thin, flat ring," that was "nowhere touching," the planet.
  • Reflecting Telescope

    Reflecting Telescope
    Isaac Newton created a reflecting telescope that uses mirrors instead of lenses, so the light doesn't get split and blur the image. This allows for much shorter telescopes.
  • Saturn- Multiple rings

    Saturn- Multiple rings
    Giovanni Domenico Cassini determined that Saturn's ring was composed of multiple smaller rings with gaps between them.
  • 20ft Telescope

    20ft Telescope
    Herschel builds a 20 foot long telescope and sees the disc - shaped Milky Way. He makes a map of it called the grindstone.
  • The Discovery of Uranus

    The Discovery of Uranus
    Sir Frederick William Herschel discovered Uranus with his sister. They used a much larger version of Newton's reflecting telescope.
  • Saturn- Ringlets

    Saturn- Ringlets
    Pierre-Simon Laplace suggested that the rings were composed of a large number of solid ringlets.
  • Spiral Nebulae

    Spiral Nebulae
    Lord Rosse used his largest telescope to see the spiral structure of a nebula called M51.
  • Saturn- Not solid rings

    Saturn- Not solid rings
    James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated that the rings could not be solid or they would become unstable and break apart.
  • Mountaintop Observatory

    Mountaintop Observatory
    People built a telescope at the top of a mountain because the air is clearer up there. They used mirrors because big glass lenses bend. They saw things past our galaxy.
  • CBR

    CBR
    Cosmic Background Radiation was accidentally discovered when some scientists pointed a radio telescope where there should be no heat. It is 3 degrees above absolute zero.
  • Hubble Telescope Launched

    Hubble Telescope Launched
    The Hubble Space Telescope was launched.