Telescopes Through the Centuries

This site is less about astronomy in general than an illustrated history of the telescopes and photographic equipment used by both professional and amateur astronomers. It is a tribute to those optical engineers and backyard tinkerers whose instruments took us beyond the musings of ancient stargazers, bringing meaning to formerly inexplicable phenomena and opening the door to modern cosmology.

The medium in this case may not exactly be the message, but it seems that with every significant advance in relevant technology has come an equally significant leap in our knowledge of the universe. If in the coming years we can refrain from destroying ourselves and the planet, then who knows where the technology might take us. Where it might take us, ... or when.

From Spyglasses to Space-Mounted Telescopes

At the turn of the last century many scientists were still convinced that ancient civilizations had constructed a system of canals on Mars. Less than a century later we were stunned by the first discovery of a planet beyond our own solar system.

By then amateur astronomers were taking photographs from their backyards that far surpassed the output of even the best equipped observatories a hundred or even twenty-five years before. Telescopes with automatic, computerized location systems had become affordable for the average man. With the press of a button, their scopes would zero in on NGC 7331 or beyond.

Around the same time, during the 1990's, we were captivated by the first images transmitted by the Hubble Telescope— fantastic views of multi-colored nebulae intertwined within the spiral arms of our own galaxy. And then, in Hubble's first long exposure image, we were shown hundreds of galaxies, light centuries beyond our own, all of them occupying an area of space that from our earthly perspective was roughly the size of a grain of salt held at arms length.

Beyond the wonder lie practical possibilities. On a planet supporting 6 billion humans, what cosmologist would not try to believe that future historians would look back to the day when telescopes pointed us toward the eventual rescue of our species. As of this 3/2010 writing we've had proof of planets beyond our own solar system for roughly fifteen years. The count is over 430 and grows exponentially with every month that passes. The search for exoplanets is now a scientific field in itself, though a mere four hundred years earlier, not long after Galileo first aimed his telescope toward the heavens, he came very close to losing his life for having suggested that the earth revolved around our sun.

Much of this website's focus, particularly from the beginning of the nineteenth century onward, will be devoted to the various individuals and manufacturers whose designs and products have furthered astronomical research. Most of these were family businesses founded by such craftsmen as Thomas Grubb and Alvan Clark.