The Evolution of Reflecting Telescopes, Part 2

Dr. Kenneth Lum  will give Part two of his presentation on the evolution of the reflecting telescope. In August he spoke about the invention of the reflecting telescope by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668, through to the development of large aperture reflectors in the 19th Century that were hampered by poor design. This month he will talk about the late 19th Century resurgence of the reflector as the primary tool for observational astronomy with the coming of the ability to apply high efficiency reflective coatings to glass mirrors, better ways to test the accuracy of their surfaces, and improved mechanical telescope mountings. He will discuss the history of the people who were most responsible for this change to the dominant telescope technologies used today.