The Telescope

This remarkable history encompasses not only the achievements of the early inventors and astronomers but also the less frequently recounted stories of the instrument makers and of the actual instruments. A model of unsurpassed, comprehensive scholarship, this volume covers many fields, including professional and amateur astronomy. 196 black-and-white illustrations.

The origins of the telescope have been discussed and debated since shortly after the instrument's appearance in The Hague in 1608. Civic and national pride have led local dignitaries, popular writers, and numerous scholars to search the archives and to construct sharply divergent histories. Did the honor of the invention belong to the Dutch, to the Italians, to the English, or to the Spanish? And if the city of Middelburg in the Netherlands was, in fact, the cradle of the instrument, was the "true inventor" Hans Lipperhey or his rival Zacharias Jansen? Or was the instrument there before anyone knew it? Over the past several decades, a group of historians and scientists have sought out new documents, re-examined familiar ones, and tested early lenses and telescopes. This volume contains the proceedings of a symposium held in Middelburg in September 2008 to mark 400 years of the telescope. The essays in it, taken as a whole, present a new and convincing account of the origins of the instrument that changed mankind's vision of the universe.

This work presents information about telescopes, their construction, and their properties. It's a telescopic history before World War II and was written with the objective of giving out more accurate details concerning telescopes to the many observers who use telescopes for study or amusement. It deals mainly with principles and their application to the telescope, an astronomer's chief research instrument. It is an informative work and would be of great interest to all astronomy fans. Contents include: The Evolution of the Telescope The Modern Telescope Optical Glass and Its Working The Properties of Objectives and Mirrors Mountings Eye-pieces Hand Telescopes and Binoculars Accessories The Testing and Care of Telescopes Setting up and Housing the Telescope Seeing and Magnification

Tells the story, visionary by visionary and discovery by discovery, of the telescope, one of the few inventions that have revolutionized our view of the universe and how we fit into it.