Timeline of telescope technology

Timeline of telescope technology

* c.2560 BC - c.860 BC - Egyptian artisans polish rock crystal, semi-precious stones, and latterly glass to produce facsimile eyes for statuary and mummy cases. The intent appears to be to produce an optical illusion. [ [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11624467&dopt=Abstract First known lenses originating in Egypt about 4600 years ago! Hindsight. 2000 Apr;31(2):9-17.] ] [ [http://www.io.cfmac.csic.es/PDFs/Semi_IyV/seminario_enoch.PDF#search=%22Egyptian%20rock%20crystal%20lens%20illusion%22 Studies of the oldest Known Lenses at the Louvre (4600 Years Before the Present)] ] [ [http://home.comcast.net/~hebsed/enoch.htm Remarkable Old Kingdom Lenses and the Illusion of the Following Eye] ]
* c.470 BC - c.390 BC - Chinese philosopher Mozi writes on the use of concave mirrors to focus the sun's rays. Fact|date=October 2007
* 423 BC - Aristophanes writes about the use of a burning glass in his play The Clouds, first performed in this year.

: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?

::gutenberg|no=2562|name=The Clouds "translated by William James Hickie'

* 5th century BC - Artifacts that could be lenses found in a sacred cave on Mount Ida, Crete date to this period.Fact|date=October 2007
* c.4 BC - 65 AD - Seneca the Younger describes magnification by a globe filled with water:

:"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..." [Seneca the Younger, "Quaestiones Naturales", Book 1 [6,5] , [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/sen.qn1.shtml] ]

* 23 - 79 AD - Pliny the Elder

:"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." [Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History" (trans. John Bostock) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+36.67 Book XXXVI, Chap. 67] .]

:"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." [Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History" (trans. John Bostock) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+37.10 Book XXXVII, Chap. 10] .]

*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 interference." [Regis Morelon, "General Survey of Arabic Astronomy", pp. 9-10, in Harv|Rashed|Morelon|1996|pp=1-19]

*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. [Regis Morelon, "General Survey of Arabic Astronomy", p. 10, in Harv|Rashed|Morelon|1996|pp=1-19]

* 984 - Ibn Sahl completes a treatise "On Burning Mirrors and Lenses", describing plano-convex and biconvex lenses, and parabolic and ellipsoidal mirrors. [cite journal
last = Rashed
first = Roshdi
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = A Pioneer in Anaclastics: Ibn Sahl on Burning Mirrors and Lenses
journal = Isis
volume = 81
issue = 3
pages = 464–491
publisher = The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
location =
date = 1990-09
url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-1753(199009)81%3A3%3C464%3AAPIAIS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D
issn = 00211753
id =
accessdate = 2007-10-10
month = Sep
year = 1990
doi = 10.1086/355456 ] [cite web
last = Elizabeth
first = Hazel
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = 902AD Manuscript Located
work =
publisher = Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait
date =
url = http://www.trmkt.com/902manu.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-10-10 ]
* 1011 - 1021 - Ibn al-Haytham (also known as "Alhacen" or "Alhazen") writes the "Kitab al-Manazir" ("Book of Optics"). [For extensive references, see the Book of Optics article.] He wrote about the effects of pinhole and concave lenses in his book,Harv|Wade|Finger|2001] Harv|Elliott|1966|Chapter 1] which was influential in the development of the modern telescope. [O. S. Marshall (1950). "Alhazen and the Telescope", "Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets" 6, p. 4.] The earliest evidence of "a magnifying device, a convex lens forming a magnified image," also dates back to his "Book of Optics".citation|last1=Kriss|first1=Timothy C.|last2=Kriss|first2=Vesna Martich|title=History of the Operating Microscope: From Magnifying Glass to Microneurosurgery|journal=Neurosurgery|volume=42|issue=4|pages=899-907|date=April 1998]
* 10th-11th century - Visby lenses may have possibly been used for magnification. The lenses may have been imported from the Middle East via Viking trading routes, but there is also evidence of local manufacture of lenses. [For extensive references, see the Visby lenses article.]
* 12th century - The properties of the magnifying lens is introduced to Europe after Alhazen's "Book of Optics" is translated into Latin.
* 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 possible sit nobis ex incredibili distantia litteras minimas legere, aut arenam, aut granum, aut gramina, aut quaevis minuta numerare.") in his work "De Iride". [cite web
url=http://www.grosseteste.com/cgi-bin/textdisplay.cgi?text=de-iride.xml
title=De iride
accessdate=2007-03-28]
* 1266 - Roger Bacon apparently documents the use of a telescope in his treatise "Opus Majus", using terms very similar to his mentor, Robert Grosseteste. [For extensive references, see the Roger Bacon article.]
* 1270 (approx) - Witelo writes "Perspectiva" - "Optics" incorporating much of "Kitab al-Manazir". [For references, see the Witelo article.]
* 1570s - English mathematician and surveyor Leonard Digges is a likely inventor of both reflecting and refracting telescopes. [cite web|url=http://www.chocky.demon.co.uk/oas/diggeshistory.html|title=Did the reflecting telescope have English origins?|accessdate=2007-03-15|year=2002] [cite journal | last = Ronan | first =Colin A. M.Sc. F.R.A.S. | title =Leonard and Thomas Digges | journal = Journal of the British Astronomical Association | volume = 101 | issue = 6 | publisher = British Astronomical Association | year = 1991]
* 1570s - Ottoman astronomer and engineer Taqi al-Din invents a rudimentary telescope. In his "Book of the Light of the Pupil of Vision and the Light of the Truth of the Sights", he describes it as an instrument that makes objects located far away appear closer to the observer. He further states that the instrument helps to see distant objects in detail by bringing them very close. He also states that he wrote another earlier treatise explaining the way this instrument is made and used, suggesting that he invented it some time before 1574. citation|first=Hüseyin Gazi|last=Topdemir|title=Takîyüddîn'in Optik Kitabi|publisher=Ministery of Culture Press, Ankara|year=1999 (cf. cite web|author=Dr. Hüseyin Gazi Topdemir|title=Taqi al-Din ibn Ma‘ruf and the Science of Optics: The Nature of Light and the Mechanism of Vision|publisher=FSTC Limited|url=http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=951|date=30 June 2008|accessdate=2008-07-04)]
* 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.
* 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'.
* 1668 - Isaac Newton produces his own design of reflecting telescope using a paraboloid primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. This design is termed the 'Newtonian'.
* 1672 - Laurent Cassegrain, produces a different design of reflecting telescope to Gregory, again, well ahead of manufacturing techniques of the time using a paraboloid primary mirror and a hyperboloid secondary mirror. The design, named 'Cassegrain', is still used in astronomical telescopes used in observatories in 2006.
* 1674 - Robert Hooke produces an experimental model to the Gregorian design.
* 1721 - John Hadley constructs the first working telescope to the Gregorian design.
* 1730s - James Short succeeds in producing high-quality telescopes to the Gregorian design.
* 1733 - Chester Moore Hall invents the achromatic lens.
* 1758 - John Dollond re-invents and patents the achromatic lens.
* 1783 - Jesse Ramsden invents his eponymous eyepiece.
* 1849 - Carl Kellner designs and manufactures the first achromatic eyepiece, announced in his paper "Das orthoskopische Ocular".
* 1860 - Georg Simon Plössl produces his eponymous eyepiece.
* 1880 - Ernst Abbe designs the first orthoscopic eyepiece (Kellner's was solely achromatic rather than orthoscopic, despite his description).
* 1910s - George Willis Ritchey and Henri Chrétien co-invent the Ritchey-Chrétien telescope used in many, if not most of the largest astronomical telescopes.
* 1930 - Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera. [cite web|url=http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/history/schmidt|title=The Schmidt Camera|month=October | year=2002|accessdate=2007-03-28]
* 1944 - Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov invents the Maksutov telescope.
* 1967 - first neutrino telescope opened in Africa.
* 1970 - first space observatory Uhuru is launched, being also the first gamma-ray telescope.

ee also

*Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology
*History of telescopes
*Refracting telescope
*Reflecting telescope
*Catadioptric telescope
*Eyepiece

Notes

References

*Harvard reference
last=Elliott
first=Robert S.
year=1966
title=Electromagnetics
publisher=McGraw-Hill
*Harvard reference
last1=Rashed
first1=Roshdi
last2=Morelon
first2=Régis
year=1996
title=Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science
volume=1 & 3
publisher=Routledge
isbn=0415124107
*Harvard reference
last=Wade
first=Nicholas J.
last2=Finger
first2=Stanley
year=2001
title=The eye as an optical instrument: from camera obscura to Helmholtz's perspective
journal=Perception
volume=30
issue=10
pages=1157-1177