Telescopes have extended the human senses to unimaginably distant and inhospitable parts of the universe. A documentary beginning to air this week on public television stations in the United States tells the story of the telescope and its unveiling of the cosmos — starting with that simple little tube Galileo pointed at the Sun, Moon, and stars.
The 60-minute documentary is called 400 Years of the Telescope: a journey of science, technology, and thought. Writer/director Kris Koenig of Interstellar Studios produced it with support from the National Science Foundation. Check out www.400Years.org for times when you can watch it in your area.
One of the film’s strengths is the narration by astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He’s a master explainer and keeps the flow moving briskly through a broad panorama of people, places, and telescopes.
I also appreciated the writing. It’s clear, accurate, and compelling. Tight editing and the music feed the flow.
Another bright spot for me was the handling of the historical period in which the infamous “Galileo affair” occurred. Galileo’s encounter with the Catholic Church is often oversimplified. The historical section includes commentary by two world-class historians of science, Owen Gingrich and Albert Van Helden (the latter also a member of the writing team for the film).
The core of the film is a tour through the evolution of telescopes as a tool for astronomy. You’ll see many of the world’s greatest instruments and hear from the scientists who developed them.
The tour covers the invention of astrophotography (which banished the human eye from astronomical research) and the birth of astrophysics.
The story continues up through the discovery of “dark energy,” the mysterious quantity invented to explain why the expansion of space appears to be speeding up. The film also introduces us to megascopes on the horizon, like the Thirty Meter Telescope.
The sheer number of different stops in the tour may seem overwhelming to some viewers. But the payoff includes a lot of insight into what astronomers do and how they do it. All seen through the lens of the things they do it with — telescopes.
Image courtesy Interstellar Studios
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