Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology.

Table of contents

1 Timeline 1.1 Before Christ era 1.2 AD 1 - 999 1.3 1000s 1.4 1100s 1.5 1200s 1.6 1400s 1.7 1500s 1.8 1600s 1.9 1700s 1.10 1800s 1.11 1900s 1.11.1 1910s 1.11.2 1930s 1.11.3 1940s 1.11.4 1950s 1.11.5 1960s 1.11.6 1970s 1.11.7 1980s 1.11.8 1990s 1.12 2000s 2 References

Timeline

Before Christ era

• 1800 BC - Babylonian star catalog
• 1700 BC - Stonehenge
• 432 BC - Athens observatory on Lycabettus Hill used by Meton and Phaeinus
• 350s BC - Eudoxus of Cnidos observatory, school at Cyzicus
• 350 BC - Shin Shen's star catalog has almost 800 entries
• 330 BC - Aristotle On the Heavens [De Caelo]
• 200 BC - Astrolabe used by Greeks
• 150 BC - Rhodes observatory
• 129 BC - Hipparchus' star catalog
• 105 BC - Alexandria observatory and College of Technology under Heron
• 52 BC - Shou-chang uses armillary ring

AD 1 - 999

• ca. 60 - Geminus Introduction to Celestial Phenomena
• 141 - Claudius Ptolemy Megale Mathematike Syntaxis [or Almagest]
• 499 - Aryabhata Aryabhatiya
• 646 - Cheomseongdae astronomical observatory near Kyongju, South Korea (formerly Silla)
• 790 - Gundishapur observations by al-Nihawandi
• 813 - Baghdad School of Astronomy
• 828 - al-Shammasiyya observatory of Abi Mansur near Baghdad
• 831-2 - Mount Qasiyun observatory near Damascus
• 840 - al-Farghani Compendium of the Science of the Stars
• 887 - Raqqa observatory of al-Batani in Syria
• 963 - al-Sufi's star catalog Book of the Fixed Stars
• 988 - Baghdad observatory of al-Quhi and al-Buzjani
• ca. 900 - Hanlin Academy observatory in Northern China
• 994 - Ray observatory of al-Khujandi near Tehran, Iran
• 1000 - Mokattam observatory, Egypt for al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah
• 1023 - Hamadan observatory
• ca. 1030 - Treasury of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham of Egypt [Alhazen]

1000s

• 1074-92 - Malikshah observatory at Isfahan used by al-Khayyam

1100s

• 1119-25 - Cairo al-Bataihi observatory for al-Afdal

1200s

• 1252-72 - Alphonsine tables recorded
• 1259 - Maragha Observatory and library of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi by Mangu under Khan Hulagu
• ca. 1270 - Terrace for Managing Heaven 26 observatory network of Guo Shoujing under Khubilai Khan

1400s

• 1417 - Speculum Planetarum by Simones de Selandia
• 1420 - Samarkand observatory of Ulugh Beg
• 1467-71 - Observatory at Oradea, Hungary for King Corvinus
• 1472 - Nuremberg observatory

1500s

• 1560 - Kassel observatory under Hessian Landgrave Wilhelm IV
• 1575-80 - Istanbul observatory of al-Din under Murad III
• 1580 - Royal Danish Astronomical Observatory at Hveen (Uraniborg) for Tycho Brahe

1600s

• 1600 - Prague observatory
• 1603 - Johann Bayer's Uranometria
• 1608 - Hans Lippershey tries to patent an optical refracting telescope
• 1609 - Galileo Galilei builds his first optical refracting telescope
• 1632 - Leiden University observatory
• 1641 - William Gascoigne invents telescope cross hairs
• 1661 - James Gregory proposes an optical reflecting telescope
• 1667 - Paris Observatory
• 1668 - Isaac Newton constructs the first optical reflecting telescope
• 1675 - Royal Greenwich Observatory of England

1700s

• 1705 - Berlin Observatory
• 1724 - Indian observatory of Sawai Jai Singh at Delhi
• 1725 - St. Petersburg observatory at Royal Academy
• 1732 - Indian observatories of Sawai Jai Singh at Varanasi, Ujjain, Mathura, Madras
• 1733 - Chester Moor Hall invents the achromatic lens refracting telescope
• 1734 - Indian observatory of Sawai Jai Singh at Jaipur
• 1758 - John Dollond reinvents the achromatic lens
• 1789 - William Herschel finishes a 49-inch optical reflecting telescope, located in Slough, England
• 1761 - Joseph-Nicolas Delisle 62 observing station network for observing the transit of Venus
• 1769 - Short reflectors used at 63 station network for transit of Venus

1800s

• 1840 - J.W. Draper invents astronomical photography and photographs the Moon
• 1845 - Lord Rosse finishes the Birr Castle 72-inch optical reflecting telescope, located in Parsonstown, Ireland
• 1871 - German Astronomical Association organized network of 13 (later 16) observatories for stellar proper motion studies
• 1872 - Henry Draper invents astronomical spectral photography and photographs the spectrum of Vega
• 1887 - Paris conference institutes Carte du Ciel project to map entire sky to 14th magnitude photographically
• 1888 - First light of 91cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory, on Mount Hamilton near San Jose, California
• 1889 - Astronomical Society of the Pacific founded
• 1890 - Albert Michelson proposes the stellar interferometer
• 1892 - George Ellery Hale finishes a spectroheliograph, which allows the Sun to be photographed in the light of one element only
• 1897 - Alvan Clark finishes the Yerkes 40-inch optical refracting telescope, located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin

1900s

1910s

• 1917 - Mount Wilson 100-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Mount Wilson, California
• 1919 - International Astronomical Union (IAU) founded

1930s

• 1930 - Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot invents the coronagraph
• 1930 - Karl Jansky builds a 30-meter long rotating aerial radio telescope
• 1933 - Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot invents the Lyot filter
• 1934 - Bernhard Schmidt finishes the first 14-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope
• 1936 - Palomar 18-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Palomar, California
• 1937 - Grote Reber builds a 31-foot radio telescope
• 1947 - Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 218-foot non-steerable radio telescope

1940s

• 1949 - Palomar 48-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Palomar, California
• 1949 - Palomar 200-inch optical reflecting telescope (Hale telescope) begins regular operation, located in Palomar, California

1950s

• 1957 - Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 250-foot steerable radio telescope
• 1957 - Peter Scheuer publishes his PhD method for obtaining source counts of spatially unresolved sources

1960s

• 1960 - Martin Ryle tests Earth rotation aperture synthesis
• 1960 - Owens Valley 27-meter radio telescopes begin operation, located in Big Pine, California
• 1961 - Parkes 64-metre radio telescope begins operation, located near Parkes, Australia
• 1962 - European Southern Observatory (ESO) founded
• 1963 - Arecibo 300-meter radio telescope begins operation, located in Arecibo, Puerto Rico
• 1964 - Ryle 1-mile radio interferometer begins operation, located in Cambridge, England
• 1965 - Owens Valley 40-meter radio telescope begins operation, located in Big Pine, California
• 1967 - First VLBI images, with 183 km baseline
• 1969 - Observations start at Big Bear Solar Observatory, located in Big Bear, California

1970s

• 1970 - Cerro Tololo 158-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Cerro Tololo, Chile
• 1970 - Kitt Peak National Observatory 158-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located near Tucson, Arizona
• 1973 - UK Schmidt Telescope 1.2 metre optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Anglo-Australian Observatory near Coonabarabran, Australia
• 1974 - Anglo-Australian Telescope 153-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Anglo-Australian Observatory near Coonabarabran, Australia
• 1975 - Gerald Smith, Frederick Landauer, and James Janesick use a CCD to observe Uranus, the first astronomical CCD observation
• 1978 - Multiple Mirror 176-inch equivalent optical/infrared reflecting telescope begins operation, located in Amado, Arizona
• 1979 - UKIRT 150-inch infrared reflecting telescope begins operation, located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
• 1979 - Canada-France-Hawaii 140-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation, located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii

1980s

• 1980 - Completion of construction of the VLA, located in Socorro, New Mexico
• 1988 - Australia Telescope Compact Array aperture synthesis radio telescope begins operation, located near Narrabri, Australia

1990s

• 1993 - Keck 10-meter optical/infrared reflecting telescope begins operation, located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
• 1997 - The Japanese Halca satellite begins operations, producing first VLBI observations from space. 25000 km maximum baseline
• 1998 - First light at VLT1, the 8.2 m ESO telescope.

2000s

• 2001 - First light at VLTI. Operations in the interferometry mode of VLT start at ESO, with 103 m baseline

References

Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy ISBN 0521411580

History of Science and Technology ISBN 0-87196-475-9

Wilson Chronology of Science and Technology ISBN 0-8242-0933-8

Encyclopedia of the history of Arabic science ISBN 0415124107