Travels into Astronomical History with the Antique Telescope Society - Livestream

Astronomy, more than most scientific disciplines, has progressed only as a result of advances in its instrumentation, particularly of the telescope and the analytical accessories that are used with it. Indeed, most of our deepest insights into the nature of the Universe would not have been possible without this remarkable device as most astronomical phenomena are actually not visible without the technological augmentation of our eyesight.

Since its accidental invention in 1608, the telescope has undergone many rounds of innovation leading to the often very large and sophisticated ground-based and, now, space-based precision instruments in use today. Its rapid development can be attributed to the fortuitous timing of its invention at the start of the Scientific Revolution in the 17th Century which carried it rapidly into the period of the Industrial Revolution starting in the 18th Century. The amazing ideas and precision tools produced by these two revolutions provided the means necessary for leapfrogging improvements to the effectiveness of telescopes.

With great good fortune, many of those making and modifying telescopes in the past have left behind an extensively well documented and well preserved record of their work in the form of very complete documentation and many extant instruments providing highly visible roadmaps of their innovations. The study of these artifacts accelerated with the publication by Louis Bell in 1922 of his book, The Telescope, and, most especially, by Henry C. King of The History of the Telescope in 1955.

Then, in 1992, a group of mostly amateur astronomers established The Antique Telescope Society whose mission is to promote the study of the development of the telescope and its accessory instruments. The group has a website where some of the research of its members is published and had published a scholarly journal where members published historical research papers. Its international membership hail mostly from the US but also come from Japan and Western Europe as well.

For me, perhaps the most appealing aspect of the ATS is that it is also a travel group which holds an annual meeting where we visit old observatories, hold a convention to share the results of our research, and examine historical optical instruments and locations. In this talk, I will show many examples of our amazing experiences.

Speaker: Ken Lum, SF Antique Telescope Society

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