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Time line of Telescopes
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Galileo's Telescope
Galileo's built his telescope after recieving knowledge of the invention of the spyglass. He wanted to make his invention based of this, but with a much higher magnification. He did this using a process of guess and check by making the objective lens convex and the optical lens concave. -
Newton's Reflectors
Since refracting telescopes were becomming so long, Newton decided to make an improvement on the telescope. He made the reflecting telescope by replacing the primary lens with a mirror that was polished and made out of meta, specificly copper and tin. A secondary mirror was then installed in order to make the light flow out the side of the telescope into the eyepiece. -
Johannes Hevelius's Telescope
Hevelius decided to improve the telescope by increasing it's length to 150 feet. Since the design was to long to be used with Iron due to budgeting concerns, and too fragile to be made out of paper, Wood was used. Although, the telescope was seldom used because it shook in the slightest breeze. -
Huygen's Refractors
Because telescopes were beginning to get so long, it was difficult at the time to enclose them in a tube. So, Christopher Huygens had the idea of putting one lens on an upright pole, and using string to line up the second lens on the ground. This was the first telescope made without a tube enclosing the lenses that was 123 feet long. -
Hadley's Reflector telescope
Although Newton's reflecting telescope solved many problems of the refracting telescope, it also had a few of its own. John Hadley decided to get rid of the blurry vision caused by the spherrical abberation by adding a parabolic mirror. The telescope worked just as well as a 123 foot long refractor and only measured 6 feet in length! -
Sir William Herschel's Telescope
Herschel spent two years developing this telescope that had a 4 aperture. Some of the discoveries made with this telescope included Saturn's sixth and seventh moons. This telescope remained the largest constructed telescope longer than 50 years after it was made. -
John Wiliam Draper
Draper designed the telescope that took the first picture of the moon. This revolutionized astronomy because different craters of the moon were revealed. These pictures were much more accurate than hand drawn notes. -
Lord Rosse's telescope
Rosse built, at that time, the world's largest telescope using 4 tons of mirrors. He spent 3 years building this gigantic tool of astronomy. It was used to discover the Whirlpool Galaxy. -
Melbourne Reflector
This telescope, made by Irishman Thomas Grubb, had a 48" diameter metal mirror. It was built in order to study the nebulae visible in the southern hemisphere sky. After it was vastly restructure in the 1990s, it was the first telescope to be used to obtain visual evidence of dark matter! -
Naval Observatory studies Venus
The naval observatory observed the process of Venus passing the surface of the sun. 8 groups were sent to various places around the world to record the various passings. These records were vital in comprehending the size of our solar system. -
Yerkes Observatory Telescope
With a lens of almost 4 feet and tube length of 67 feet, this is the world's largest refracting telescope. This colossal beast is sheltered in a 90 foot dome. It also features a rising floor in order for the astronomer to be brought to the eyepiece. -
The Hooker Telescope
With a 100 inch lens, the hooker telescope was the largest telescope from 1917 to 1948. It is named after John D. Hooker and is located on Mount Wilson. It underwent major upgrades and renovations from 1986 to 1994. -
The Discovery of Pluto
At the age of only 23, Clyde Tombaugh was hired to further Percival Lowell's findings of Planet X. After a year of observations, Tombaugh found planet X after looking at a collection of photographic plates. -
The Hale Telescope
The Hale Telescope is a reflecting telescope with a lens of 200 inches. During construction, Hale's team nearly had it completed in 1941, but had to stop construction due to America's entrance into the second World War. However, Hale himself never was able to see the finished product as he died in 1938 and the telescope was finished ten years later. -
Hubble Telescope
In 1990, the Hubble telescope was sent out into space to orbit the Earth. The telescope had the tools used to view visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. It was discovered that the width of the lense had been made wrong, but fortuneately NASA designed it to have interchangeable parts. They sent a mission to replace the lens with a clear one. -
The Spitzer Space Telescope
The spitzer telescope gathers its images using spectra and by capturing infrared energy. Because its components can operate in a small window of temperatures, Spitzer was installed with solar panels to shade it from direct sun exposure. It is a reflector telescope and is very light weight for its size at 50 kilograms.
