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A History of Optical Telescopes in Astronomy Historical & Cultural Astronomy Historical & Cultural Astronomy Series Editor: Wayne Orchiston Wilson Wall A History of Optical Telescopes in Astronomy Historical & Cultural Astronomy Series Editor: WAYNE ORCHISTON, Adjunct Professor, Astrophysics Group, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia ([email protected]) Editorial Board: JAMES EVANS, University of Puget Sound, USA MILLER GOSS, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA DUANE HAMACHER, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia JAMES LEQUEUX, Observatoire de Paris, France SIMON MITTON, St. Edmund’s College Cambridge University, UK MARC ROTHENBERG, AAS Historical Astronomy Division Chair, USA VIRGINIA TRIMBLE, University of California Irvine, USA XIAOCHUN SUN, Institute of History of Natural Science, China GUDRUN WOLFSCHMIDT, Institute for History of Science and Technology, Germany More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15156 Wilson Wall A History of Optical Telescopes in Astronomy Wilson Wall Bewdley, UK ISSN 2509-310X ISSN 2509-3118 (electronic) Historical & Cultural Astronomy ISBN 978-3-319-99087-3 ISBN 978-3-319-99088-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99088-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953321 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Book Summary Preface The importance and pivotal position of the optical telescope in moving astronomy into the modern era. The way that the telescope became simultaneously a vital tool and a source of disbelief and illusions, as it seemed able to alter the way the world was perceived. Chapter 1: Astronomy as a Science in Need of a Tool The limitations of unaided vision in determining the nature of the universe. Early ideas of the Solar System limited by parallax and problems of scale. Chapter 2: The Invention of the Telescope The combination of spectacle makers and good fortune. How Galileo became essen- tial to the development of the telescope, although he had probably never seen one before he made his own using written descriptions. The first astronomical observa- tions using a telescope that we can be sure of were made by Galileo. This includes some details illuminating his understanding of telescopes from his 1610 publication Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger), where he describes his work in some detail. v vi Book Summary Chapter 3: Developments in Optics and the Newly Invented Telescope Developments in optics as applied to telescopes improving the value of them as astronomical instruments. Closing the gap between theoretical optics and the mak- ers of lenses working empirically, a reflection of the social differences between artisans and gentleman academics. Chapter 4: Aerial Refractor Telescopes and the Development of Reflectors Development of refractive aerial telescopes alongside Kepler’s understanding of the need for reflective telescopes to produce higher magnifications with reduced spheri- cal and chromatic errors. Chapter 5: The Ascent of the Mirror Lens and Reflecting Telescopes Some of the finest examples of telescopes and the ascendance of reflecting tele- scopes and mirror lenses. The development of the builder/pioneer individuals who made massive strides by indulging their hobbies. Chapter 6: Industrial Life Creating Fine Instruments and Polluting the Skies The modern phenomenon of pollution affecting optical telescopes. Industrial pollu- tion and later light pollution putting telescopes into ever more remote regions at high altitude. Chapter 7: Moving Observations off the Planet Understanding the limits to ground-based telescopes looking through an unreliable climate and thoughts of working above the atmosphere. The role that the crystal clear photographs of Earth taken from the Moon had in changing public attitudes to impossible dreams of telescopes in space. Book Summary vii Chapter 8: The Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope. From idea to production of the greatest telescope that had ever been built. This telescope has created a resurgence in optical astronomy and changed so many attitudes towards the universe and the search for life. A chap- ter will be devoted to it alone. Chapter 9: The Future: James Webb and Beyond The optical telescope in the future. James Webb and beyond. Handling huge vol- umes of data. Chapter 10: Timeline of the Optical Telescope A timeline of astronomical and general events happening worldwide, from the year 3000 BC up to 2008 AD. Chapter 11: People in the Text An alphabetized list of all the names appearing throughout the text, including background information and relevant details. Preface There are few occasions where it can be clearly stated that the invention of an instru- ment has changed the way we view the world. The microscope and its effect on biology is one example, but there was a great deal that could be done without it. For the telescope, the position is different. Until its invention around 1600, astronomy had stalled. Looking at the skies was limited by the capacity of the human eye, and even the very clearest eyesight is limited. The telescope changed all of this at a stroke. It became possible to see what had never been seen before. So remarkable was the transformation of the night sky that Galileo began to describe stars as visible and invisible; the visible could be seen with the naked eye and the invisible which could only be seen with his telescope. Part of the change wrought by the invention of the telescope was a disruption of the classical concept of nature. Being dependent on what could be seen with the naked eye, it was possible to create an explanation of the universe that fully explained everything that was visible. However, once more celestial objects could be seen with telescopes, prevailing explanations needed to be revisited, some of them cast aside in favour of new hypotheses. As Thomas Kuhn pointed out in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), even when anomalies appear in testable hypotheses, adherence to the old ideas—often imbued with a verisimilitude of ancient author- ity—causes a collective refusal to accept the new data as true. Only when the anom- alies mount up and they can no longer be ignored does the old give way to the new. A case in point is the Catholic Church’s inability to adapt to the heliocentric model over the geocentric model of the Solar System until they were the only people left apparently believing the unbelievable. Although we can be fairly sure about both when and where the telescope was invented, the who remains a source of debate. It is all part of human nature that we feel an invention should have a specific point and source of origin, but in science, this is not always easy to pin down. Telescopes came out of a time and place, in Holland in the 16th century, where a spectacle-making industry had grown that put pairs of lenses into the hands of individuals. This is important because the cost of making a lens was such that up until then, owning two lenses was rare indeed. The spectacle makers, of which there were many, would communicate with their ix x Preface ­colleagues and pass information back and forth. At the same time, they were men of business, so when word got around—as it inevitably would—that two lenses, one convex and one concave, could be used to bring distant objects close, the hunt was on for precedence in the invention and patents for profit. The first to file a patent was a man named Lippershey, but he may not have been the very first constructor of a useable telescope. He is generally credited with the invention, even though we can- not be absolutely sure he originated the idea. What we do know for certain is that these early spyglasses gave an upright image and were presented not as instruments of astronomy but as devices suitable for use by lookouts. This was a time of exploration: the further you could see land, the bet- ter. It was also a time of political turmoil—an enemy’s ships may be just far enough not to be visible to the naked eye and yet seen with a spyglass. Thus, the nascent telescope initially had a far more terrestrial use than was destined for it. Within a very few years of the first Dutch trunke, as they were originally called, the instrument came to the attention of the scientific community. This marked a grand change in fortunes for the telescope, as the uses to which it would be put would require far better optics than telescopes started with. Although the earliest astronomical observations were made with the image as we would describe it “the right way up,” the first major development would be when Kepler changed the eye- piece lens from concave to convex.
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