Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope
by Fred Watson
Book Summary Information
Author: Fred WatsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-06-12
ISBN: 0306814838
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780306814839
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope
Book Review: The Telescope's History "Once Over Lightly"
Summary: 4 Stars
When individuals such as Galileo first turned a new invention, the telescope, on the nighttime skies about 1600 they began a process that has revolutionized humanity's understanding of the visible universe. Fred Watson's short history and commentary seeks to record the evolution of the telescope from the first simple tubes to the modern instrument. This is an accessible history, understandable to virtually all readers and for those without a basic background in astronomy a helpful glossary explains terms while another appendix catalogs what the author refers to as "The World's Great Telescopes."
Of course, the early history of the telescope is steeped in myth. Galileo, often believed to be its inventor, first heard about telescopes in 1608 and immediately grasped their importance for astronomy. He employed one in his observations and in 1609 discovered the first moons of Jupiter, setting in train a set of circumstances that transformed the human vision of the heavens. Fred Watson is at his best in describing this story, and in explaining the technology that Galileo and other early astronomers used. His was a refracting telescope, defined as "a telescope whose main light-collecting component is a convex glass lens or combination of lenses" (pp. 326-27). But refractors were prone to spherical aberrations and other anomalies, hence the rise of another type of telescope, the reflector. These telescopes used a concave mirror to collect and focus light, and found spectacular application by such scientists as Isaac Newton. While the optics, pointing systems, materials used, and other peripherals have become much more complicated over time, those two basic types of telescopes remain dominant within astronomy to this day.
Watson proceeds chronologically through the history of the telescope, focusing on the efforts of the great builders, which have often also been its most prominent users. He pauses to tell the fascinating story of William and Caroline Herschel, the sibling team who built massive (at least for their time) telescopes and explored the heavens with path-breaking results at the height of the Enlightenment in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Likewise, he discussed the efforts of George Ellery Hale to build and use the largest telescopes available in the nineteenth century, as well as William Parsons, George Willis Ritchie, Richard Reeve, and many others.
In the period since World War II, which only receives one chapter in this book, telescopes and the science they support underwent enormous change as astronomers substantively moved beyond the visible light spectrum to observe the skies in IR, UV, and other frequencies not registered by the human eye. Likewise, the placement of telescopes on spacecraft changed the situation as well. Both of these moves, as well as others of a more subtle nature transformed astronomy. Fred Watson discusses, but does not dwell on, these changes.
In many ways "Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope" provides a fine introduction to the history of the telescope. It is not a sophisticated historical work, and readers will want to look elsewhere for more complex historical analysis. But it provides a fine "once over lightly" narrative.
Summary of Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope
"An elegant text.... [A]nyone interested in the history of invention or of astronomy will find this book rewarding." (Science News)The history of the telescope is a rich story of human ingenuity and perseverance involving some of the most colorful figures of the scientific world- Galileo, Johann Kepler, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, George Ellery Hale, and Edwin Hubble. Stargazer brings to life these brilliant, if sometimes quirky, scientists as they turned their eyes and ideas to the stars. Written by one of Australia's top astronomers, Stargazer reveals lucidly, and without technical jargon (but with a dash of humor), the history, science, and technology behind the telescope, and the enormous impact that it has had for four hundred years on how we have come to understand our universe.
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