Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

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
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]
1074-92 - Malikshah observatory at Isfahan used by al-Khayyam
1119-25 - Cairo al-Bataihi observatory for al-Afdal
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
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
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
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 observatoire
1668 - Isaac Newton constructs the first optical reflecting telescope
1675 - Royal Greenwich Observatory of England
1705 - Berlin observatory
1725 - St. Petersburg observatory at Royal Academy
1733 - Chester Moor Hall invents the achromatic lens refracting telescope
1740 - Indian observatories of Jai Singh at Dehli, Jaipur, Madras
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 transit of Venus (& Mercury)
1769 - Short reflectors used at 63 station network for transit of Venus
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, near San Jose, California
1889 - Astronomical Society of the Pacific founded
1890 - Albert Michelson proposes the stellar interferometer
1892 - George Hale finishes a spectroheliograph---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
1917 - Mount Wilson 100-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Mount Wilson, California
1919 - International Astronomical Union (IAU) founded
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
1949 - Palomar 48-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Palomar, California
1949 - Palomar 200-inch optical reflecting telescope begins regular operation---located in Palomar, California
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
1960 - Martin Ryle tests Earth rotation aperature synthesis
1960 - Owens Valley 27-meter radio telescopes begin operation---located in Big Pine, California
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---183 km baseline
1969 - Observations start at Big Bear Solar Observatory---located in Big Bear, California
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
1974 - Anglo-Australian 153-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Siding Springs, Australia
1975 - Gerald Smith, Frederick Landauer, and James Janesick use a CCD to observe Uranus---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
1980 - Completion of construction of the VLA---located in Socorro, New Mexico
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.
2001 - First light at VLTI. Operations in the interferometry mode of VLT start at ESO --- 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