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 Circles1845 - 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)