Stargazer: The Life and Times of the TelescopeThe history of the telescope is a rich story of human ingenuity and perseverance involving some of the most colourful figures of the scientific world - Galileo, Johannes, Kepler, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, George Ellery Hale and Edwin Hubble. Stargazer, written by one of the world's top astronomers, brings to life the story of these brilliant, if sometimes quirky, scientists as they turned their eyes and ideas beyond what anyone thought possible. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 18 | |
Enigma | 37 |
Enlightenment | 55 |
Flowering | 69 |
Evolution | 84 |
On Reflection | 107 |
Mirror Image | 118 |
Heartbreaker | 216 |
Dream Optics | 230 |
Silver and Glass | 248 |
Walking with Galaxies | 272 |
Epilogue | 283 |
Notes and sources | 290 |
References | 312 |
Glossary | 323 |
Scandal | 137 |
The Way to Heaven | 156 |
Astronomers Behaving Badly | 180 |
Leviathans | 198 |
The worlds great telescopes | 328 |
Index | 333 |
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Common terms and phrases
allow aperture appears astronomers became built called century Chapter colour combination common completed concave convex described detail diameter discovered discovery distant early eventually example eyepiece fact field focal followed galaxies Galileo given glass Grubb hands Helden Herschel idea inch instrument invention Italy James Kepler King known late later length lens lenses less letter light Location look Lord Rosse measured metre mirror Moon mounting moved nature nebulae Newton noted objective observations Observatory once Operated optical optician perfect perhaps planets polishing position problem produced rays record reflecting telescope refracting refractor remains result Royal scientific scope seems seen shape Siding Spring Observatory South space spherical stars successful suggested surface System tele things tion took tube turned Tycho University
Popular passages
Page 239 - I looked into the spectroscope. No spectrum such as I expected! A single bright line only! At first I suspected some displacement of the prism, and that I was looking at a reflection of the illuminated slit from one of its faces. This thought was scarcely more than momentary; then the true interpretation flashed upon me. The light of the nebula was monochromatic, and so, unlike any other light I had as yet subjected to prismatic examination, could not be extended out to form a complete spectrum.
Page 99 - our astronomical observer" at a salary of £100 per annum, his duty being "forthwith to apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying the tables of the motions of the heavens and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting the art of navigation.
Page 96 - Here out of the window it was a most pleasant sight to see the City from one end to the other with a glory about it, so high was the light of the bonfires, and so thick round the City, and the bells rang everywhere.
Page 239 - The riddle of the nebulae was solved. The answer, which had come to us in the light itself, read: Not an aggregation of stars, but a luminous gas.
Page 72 - ... the rest and the whole brimme along, lookes like unto the Description of Coasts in the dutch bookes of voyages. in the full she appeares like a tarte that my Cooke made me the last Weeke.
Page 294 - Planimetra, and Stereometria, containing Rules manifolde for mensuration of all lines, Superficies, and Solides...
Page 264 - ... with the theory but unapproachable in any vacuumtube. Similarly, Adams' observations of the companion of Sirius with the Hooker telescope confirmed Eddington's prediction that matter can exist thousands of times denser than any terrestrial substance. In fact, things have reached such a point that a far-sighted industrial leader, whose success may depend in the long run on a complete knowledge of the nature of matter and its transformations, would hardly be willing to be limited by the feeble...
Page 226 - I consider the failure of the Melbourne reflector to have been one of the greatest calamities in the history of instrumental astronomy for, by destroying confidence in the usefulness of great reflecting telescopes, it has hindered the development of this type of instrument, so wonderfully efficient in photographic and spectroscopic work, for nearly a third of a century.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope |
| Author | Fred Watson |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Allen & Unwin, 2004 |
| ISBN | 1865086584, 9781865086583 |
| Length | 342 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |