Astronomy.com blog : Daniel Pendick, history

Updated: Historical telescopes at the Adler Planetarium

Daniel Pendick — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:20:00 GMT

***Images updated.***

Next week, you can check out the rich collection of astronomical instruments at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the telescope, the planetarium opens its a new exhibition, “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass,” on May 22. The show spotlights technology used to gather information about our universe since Galileo’s day and includes hands-on interactive exhibits.

The trumpet-shaped telescope is a rare type with few surviving examples. Its distinctive feature is a front end that flares outward to the instrument’s objective lens. The Adler show will take you from the 1600s, when this beauty was made in Italy, to the reign of the Hubble Space Telescope, now being refurbished in orbit by a space shuttle crew.

Dating from around 1630, this beautiful Italian refracting telescope is the only early telescope found outside of Europe. Part of the Adler's world-famous Mensing Collection, this rare trumpet-shaped telescope's main tube tapers outward from the eyepiece. ©Adler Planetarium]

This 1977 pocket telescope, created by noted English craftsman Peter Dollond, is encased in tortoise shell inlaid with silver. The tubes are made of pasteboard with an interior surface that's matte black to reduce stray reflections. Red leather tooled in platinum covers the single draw, with the overall design based on leafy vines. ©Adler Planetarium

Owning a Dollond telescope carried a great deal of social weight. This elaborately decorated piece from 1843 is made of gold-plated sterling silver. The main tube shows raised scrollwork and foliate decoration, its case red Moroccan leather with elaborate gold tooling. A Turkish noble likely commissioned it. ©Adler Planetarium

William Herschel, a German musician turned astronomer, discovered Uranus in 1781 using a reflector identical to this 7-foot instrument made in 1788. Herschel's passion for astronomy led him to build the most powerful telescopes in the world. He also invented a mount that allowed the eyepiece to stay at the same level while the tube and mirror moved to locate celestial objects. ©Adler Planetarium

“400 years of the telescope” documentary airs

Daniel Pendick — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:27:00 GMT

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

Related:

Video: "The day Galileo changed the universe, part one," with Astronomy magazine Editor David J. Eicher
Video: "The day Galileo changed the universe, part two," with Astronomy magazine Editor David J. Eicher
Blogs: International Year of Astronomy
Blogs: Galileo

Ho, ho, ho for Halley’s Comet

Daniel Pendick — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

On Christmas Day, 1758, a German amateur astronomer and farmer named Johann Georg Palitzsch did something that would have made a great Christmas gift for English astronomer Edmond Halley. Johann “recovered” Halley’s Comet, meaning he was the first to observe this previously observed “dirty snowball” as it returned to the inner solar system.

Edmond Halley (1656-1742) calculated the orbit of the comet that now bears his name based on previous sightings. He determined that the same comet was responsible for several sightings spaced about 75 years apart.

By Halley’s reckoning, the comet would reappear in 1758 — that’s 250 years ago this Christmas. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see his prediction proved correct.

For the complete and detailed scoop on the recovery of Halley’s Comet, read this treasure-trove of information and images by master comet observer Gary W. Kronk, author of the Cometography book series.