Timeline of telescope technology

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Timeline of telescope technology

Strepsiades: Have you ever seen this stone in the chemist's shops, the beautiful and transparent one, from which they kindle fire?
Socrates: Do you mean the burning-glass?
The Clouds translated by William James Hickie, available at Project Gutenberg.
"Letters, however small and indistinct, are seen enlarged and more clearly through a globe of glass filled with water."
"...litterae quamuis minutae et obscurae per uitream pilam aqua plenam maiores clarioresque cernuntur..."[5]
"And yet, we find that globular glass vessels, filled with water, when brought in contact with the rays of the sun, become heated to such a degree as to cause articles of clothing to ignite." [6]
"I find it stated by medical men that the very best cautery for the human body is a ball of crystal acted upon by the rays of the sun."[7]
  • 853 - 929 - The first reference to an astronomical "observation tube" is found in the work of Albatenius (853-929). Though these early observation tubes did not have lenses, they "enabled an observer to focus on a part of the sky by eliminating light inteference."[8]
  • 973 - 1048 - The first exact description of an astronomical "observation tube" (without lenses) was given by al-Biruni, in a section of his work that is "dedicated to verifying the presence of the new cresent on the horizon." These observation tubes were later adopted in Latin-speaking Europe, where it evolved into the telescope.[9]
  • 984 - Ibn Sahl completes a treatise On Burning Mirrors and Lenses, describing plano-convex and biconvex lenses, and parabolic and ellipsoidal mirrors.[10][11]
  • 1011 - 1021 - Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) writes treatise Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics).[12] He wrote about the effects of pinhole and concave lenses in his book,[13][14] which was influential in the development of the modern telescope.[15]
  • 9th-11th century - Visby lenses possibly used to make a telescope. The lenses may have been imported from the Middle-East via Viking trading routes, but there is also evidence of local manufacture of lenses.[16]
  • 1230-1235 - Robert Grosseteste describes the use of 'optics' to "...make small things placed at a distance appear any size we want, so that it may be possible for us to read the smallest letters at incredible distances..." ("Haec namque pars Perspectivae perfecte cognita ostendit nobis modum, quo res longissime distantes faciamus apparere propinquissime positas et quo res magnas propinquas faciamus apparere brevissimas et quo res longe positas parvas faciamus apparere quantum volumus magnas, ita ut possibile sit nobis ex incredibili distantia litteras minimas legere, aut arenam, aut granum, aut gramina, aut quaevis minuta numerare.") in his work De Iride.[17]
  • 1266 - Roger Bacon apparently documents the use of a telescope in his treatise Opus Majus, using terms very similar to his mentor, Robert Grosseteste.[18]
  • 1270 (approx) - Witelo writes Perspectiva - "Optics" incorporating much of Kitab al-Manazir.[19]
  • 1520 - 1559 - English mathematician and surveyor Leonard Digges likely inventor of both reflecting and refracting telescopes.[20][21]
  • 1608 - Hans Lippershey, a Dutch lensmaker, applies for a patent for the design of a telescope. Several other people make similar claims around the same time, such as Jacob Metius and Zacharias Janssen.
A replica of Galileo's telescope
A replica of Galileo's telescope
  • 1609 - Galileo Galilei makes his own improved version of Lippershey's telescope, calling it at first a "perspicillum," and then using the terms "telescopium" in Latin and "telescopio" in Italian. Telescopes using one convex and one concave lens are often termed 'Galilean'.
  • 1611 - Johannes Kepler describes the optics of lenses (see his books Astronomiae Pars Optica and Dioptrice), including a new kind of astronomical telescope with two convex lenses (the 'Keplerian' telescope).
  • 1616 - Niccolo Zucchi constructs a reflecting telescope.
  • 1630 - Christoph Scheiner constructs a telescope to Kepler's design.
  • 1650 - Christiaan Huygens produces his design for a compound eyepiece.
  • 1663 - Scottish mathematician James Gregory designs a reflecting telescope with paraboloid primary mirror and ellipsoid secondary mirror. Construction techniques at the time could not make it, and a workable model was produced only about 60 years later. The design is known as 'Gregorian'.
A replica of Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope of 1672
A replica of Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope of 1672

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The New Discovery of A Rare Ancient Egyptian Lens
  2. ^ First known lenses originating in Egypt about 4600 years ago! Hindsight. 2000 Apr;31(2):9-17.
  3. ^ Studies of the oldest Known Lenses at the Louvre (4600 Years Before the Present)
  4. ^ Remarkable Old Kingdom Lenses and the Illusion of the Following Eye
  5. ^ Seneca the Younger, Quaestiones Naturales, Book 1 [6,5], [1]
  6. ^ Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (trans. John Bostock) Book XXXVI, Chap. 67.
  7. ^ Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (trans. John Bostock) Book XXXVII, Chap. 10.
  8. ^ Regis Morelon, "General Survey of Arabic Astronomy", pp. 9-10, in (Rashed & Morelon 1996, pp. 1-19)
  9. ^ Regis Morelon, "General Survey of Arabic Astronomy", p. 10, in (Rashed & Morelon 1996, pp. 1-19)
  10. ^ Rashed, Roshdi (1990-09). "A Pioneer in Anaclastics: Ibn Sahl on Burning Mirrors and Lenses". Isis 81 (3): 464–491. The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society. doi:10.1086/355456. ISSN 00211753. 
  11. ^ Elizabeth, Hazel. 902AD Manuscript Located. Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
  12. ^ For extensive references, see the Book of Optics article.
  13. ^ (Wade & Finger 2001)
  14. ^ (Elliott & 1966 Chapter 1)
  15. ^ O. S. Marshall (1950). "Alhazen and the Telescope", Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets 6, p. 4.
  16. ^ For extensive references, see the Visby lenses article.
  17. ^ De iride. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
  18. ^ For extensive references, see the Roger Bacon article.
  19. ^ For references, see the Witelo article.
  20. ^ Did the reflecting telescope have English origins? (2002). Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  21. ^ Ronan, Colin A. M.Sc. F.R.A.S. (1991). "Leonard and Thomas Digges". Journal of the British Astronomical Association 101 (6). British Astronomical Association. 
  22. ^ The Schmidt Camera (October 2002). Retrieved on 2007-03-28.

[edit] References