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Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology.
Timeline
Before Christ era
- 1800 BC - Babylonian star catalog
- 3100-1700 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
1600s
1700s
1800s
1900s
1910s
1930s
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 Ph.D. 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
- 1979 - NASA Infrared Telescope Facility[1] (http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/) 120-inch infrared reflecting telescope begins operation, located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
1980s
1990s
2000s
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
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