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Seeing the Universe

before 1610 - naked eye astronomy
1608 - Galileo's hand held telescopes
1673 - Hevelius' long telescopes
1780 - Herschel's large reflectors
1838 - Meridian Circles
1845 - Rosse's Leviathian
1890 - Barnard's camera
1923 - The Hooker 100 inch
1948 - The Palomar 200 inch
1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope
1998 - The Keck 10 metre pair
2000 - The VLT array
2015 - Planning for the JWST
2020? - Planning the OWL
How much further?

In 1845, Lord Rosse of Birr Castle, Ireland, used his Leviathian telescope, with its 72 inch mirror, to discern the spiral structure of some of the nebulae. He recorded his findings as pencil sketches. The veracity of his sketches were not generally accepted until the invention of astronomical cameras which enabled all astronomers to see what he had first seen through his massive, cumbersome instrument.  Birr Castle Home Page

Rosse's 72 inch Leviathan telescope (Birr Castle Museum)