The first reflecting telescope built by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668 [3] is a landmark in the history of telescopes, being the first known successful reflecting telescope. [4] [5] It was the prototype for a design that later came to be called the Newtonian telescope. There were some early prototypes and also modern replicas of this design.
Isaac Newton built his reflecting telescope as a proof for his theory that white light is composed of a spectrum of colours. [6] He had concluded that the lens of any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours (chromatic aberration). The telescope he constructed used mirrors as the objective which bypass that problem. To create the primary mirror Newton used a custom composition of metal consisting of six parts copper to two parts tin, an early composition of speculum metal. [4] He devised means for shaping and grinding the mirror and may have been the first to use a pitch lap [7] to polish the optical surface. He chose a spherical shape for his mirror instead of a parabola to simplify construction: he had satisfied himself that the chromatic, and not the spherical aberration, formed the chief faults of refracting telescopes. He added to his reflector what is the hallmark of the design of a "Newtonian telescope", a secondary "diagonal" mirror near the primary mirror's focus to reflect the image at 90° angle to an eyepiece mounted on the side of the telescope. This unique addition allowed the image to be viewed with minimal obstruction of the objective mirror. He also made all the tube, mount, and fittings.
Newton described his invention as:
"The diameter of the sphere to which the Metal was ground concave was about 25 English Inches, and by consequence the length of the Instrument about six Inches and a quarter. The Eye-glass was Plano-convex, and the diameter of the Sphere to which the convex side was ground was about 1/5 of an Inch, or a little less, and by consequence it magnified between 30 and 40 times. By another way of measuring I found it magnified 35 times. The concave Metal bore an Aperture of an Inch and a third part, but the Aperture was limited not by an Opake Circle, covering the limb of the Metal round about, but be an opake Circle, placed between the Eyeglass and the Eye, and perforated in the middle with a little round hole for the Rays to pass through to the Eye. For this Circle being placed here, stopp'd much of the erroneous Light, which other wise would have disturbed the Vision. By comparing it with a pretty good Perspective of four Feet in length, made with a concave Eye-glass, I could read at a greater distance with my own Instrument than with the Glass. Yet Objects appeared much darker in it than in the Glass, and that partly because more Light was lost by Reflexion in the Metal, than by Refraction in the Glass, and partly because my Instrument was overcharged. Had it magnified but 30 or 25 times, it would have made the Object appear more brisk and pleasant" ... "The object-metal was two inches broad, and about one-third part of an inch thick, to keep it from bending. I had two of these metals, and when I had polished them both I tried which was best; and ground the other again, to see if I could make it better, than that which I kept."
Newton describes a telescope with an objective concave primary mirror diameter of 2 inches (50 mm) 0.3 of an inch thick, ground to fit a sphere that was 25 inches in diameter giving it a radius of 12.5 inches and a focal length of 6.25 inches (158 mm). The mirror was aperture reduced to an effective aperture of 1.3 inches by placing a disk with a hole in it between the observer's eye and the eyepiece. The telescope had a flat diagonal secondary mirror bouncing the light at a 90° angle to a Plano-convex eyepiece with a probable focal length of 4.5mm yielding his observed 35 times magnification. Newton said the telescope was 6.25 inches long; this matches the length of the instrument pictured in his monograph "Opticks". It appears that the second telescope, which was presented to the Royal Society has a longer focal length as it is significantly longer than the first one shown in his illustration and described in "Opticks". [8] Newton completed his first reflecting telescope in late 1668 and first wrote about it in a February 23, 1669 letter to Henry Oldenburg (Secretary of the Royal Society).". [9]
Newton found that he could see the four Galilean moons of Jupiter and the crescent phase of the planet Venus with his new little telescope. [8] Newton's friend Isaac Barrow showed the telescope to small group from the Royal Society of London at the end of 1671. They were so impressed with it they demonstrated it for Charles II in January 1672. [10] This telescope remained in the repository of the Royal Society until it disintegrated and then disappeared from their records. The last reference to it was in 1731 saying that only two mirrors remained of it. [2]
The practical potential of Newton's first telescope was made more clear by the end of the 18th century, when the largest reflector had grown to nearly 50 inches aperture (126 cm) [11] while the largest achromatic lens objective was not more than about 5 inches (13 cm). [12]
There has been some lack of clarity over the early telescopes that Newton built, but it is now clear that his first telescope was a prototype that he constructed in 1668. This was seen only by a few friends at Cambridge and very little is known of it. This prototype had a mirror a little over an inch in diameter, probably 1.3 inches, and around 6 inches in length. [13] Newton seldom referred to this prototype in later years and so his second scope is often called his first.
Newton's second telescope was made in 1671; it had a mirror of 2 inches diameter and a focal length of between 6.25" and 6.3". He made two mirrors and chose the best one for the telescope. He did not keep this telescope long, but presented it to the Royal Society for examination. An account of this telescope just after its presentation in December 1671 described it as being about 7 inches long and about 2.25 inches in diameter. The image was viewed through a hole in the side of the tube "about the size of a great pins head". The tube was one piece and the mirror was moved up from the bottom in order to focus it. It was mounted on a ball and socket mount. [14] This second telescope stayed with the society and by 1731 it had disintegrated to the point of only the two metal mirrors remaining. It then subsequently disappeared. It is certain that this is not the telescope that the Royal Society now hold in their possession as this mirror contained silver and the third telescope mirror contains no silver but has the addition of arsenic. This was something which Newton proposed as an improvement on his second telescope mirror as he found that the metal was too soft due to the silver.
Newton's third telescope was built in 1671–1672 by Newton and his "chamber fellow" at Trinity College John Wickins. He reported that Wickins did a better job of figuring the mirror than he had done on his second telescope. This is the telescope that he had by him when he was writing Opticks. The telescope appeared some time later in the shop of Heath and Wing instrument makers along with an instrument of Newtons belonging to Edmond Halley. It is most likely that the telescope had passed to Halley and then to Heath and Wing. This third telescope had the mirror damaged in 1694 by Newton while trying to clean it. It is thought that the mirror was later refigured by restorers accounting for its plugged eyepiece hole at an appropriate distance for a 6.25 inch focal length mirror and the new eyepiece position for the current mirror focal length of 8.5 inches. The current brass eyepiece is not original and was added later. This telescope was restored by Heath and Wing and presented to the Royal Society in 1766 as the telescope that Newton had made. At a later date a plaque was added to this telescope with the incorrect inscription claiming that it was his first telescope and made in 1671. This telescope probably includes the original mirrors, reground, part of the original base, the original support bar and possibly the original tube or parts of it. [2]
A replica of the 1668 Newton's telescope was made in 1924 by F.L. Agate for the Science Museum, London. [15] Two replicas were made in the 1960s from the original, one for the Queen and another for European Northern Observatory at La Palma. [16] Another replica was made in 1984 for the chief designer of the William Herschel Telescope. [16] The 1984 replica ended up in the collection of the National Maritime Museum by the early 21st century. [16]
The history of the telescope can be traced to before the invention of the earliest known telescope, which appeared in 1608 in the Netherlands, when a patent was submitted by Hans Lippershey, an eyeglass maker. Although Lippershey did not receive his patent, news of the invention soon spread across Europe. The design of these early refracting telescopes consisted of a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece. Galileo improved on this design the following year and applied it to astronomy. In 1611, Johannes Kepler described how a far more useful telescope could be made with a convex objective lens and a convex eyepiece lens. By 1655, astronomers such as Christiaan Huygens were building powerful but unwieldy Keplerian telescopes with compound eyepieces.
A refracting telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image. The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long-focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes, the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope, which allows larger apertures. A refractor's magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece.
An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to collect data through electronic image sensors.
A reflecting telescope is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration. Although reflecting telescopes produce other types of optical aberrations, it is a design that allows for very large diameter objectives. Almost all of the major telescopes used in astronomy research are reflectors. Many variant forms are in use and some employ extra optical elements to improve image quality or place the image in a mechanically advantageous position. Since reflecting telescopes use mirrors, the design is sometimes referred to as a catoptric telescope.
In optical engineering, the objective is the optical element that gathers light from the object being observed and focuses the light rays to produce a real image. Objectives can be a single lens or mirror, or combinations of several optical elements. They are used in microscopes, binoculars, telescopes, cameras, slide projectors, CD players and many other optical instruments. Objectives are also called object lenses, object glasses, or objective glasses.
The Newtonian telescope, also called the Newtonian reflector or just a Newtonian, is a type of reflecting telescope invented by the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton, using a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newton's first reflecting telescope was completed in 1668 and is the earliest known functional reflecting telescope. The Newtonian telescope's simple design has made it very popular with amateur telescope makers.
Magnification is the process of enlarging the apparent size, not physical size, of something. This enlargement is quantified by a calculated number also called "magnification". When this number is less than one, it refers to a reduction in size, sometimes called magnification or de-magnification.
The Isaac Newton Telescope or INT is a 2.54 m (100 in) optical telescope run by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands since 1984.
An eyepiece, or ocular lens, is a type of lens that is attached to a variety of optical devices such as telescopes and microscopes. It is named because it is usually the lens that is closest to the eye when someone looks through the device. The objective lens or mirror collects light and brings it to focus creating an image. The eyepiece is placed near the focal point of the objective to magnify this image. The amount of magnification depends on the focal length of the eyepiece.
A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses (dioptrics) and curved mirrors (catoptrics). Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights, headlamps, early lighthouse focusing systems, optical telescopes, microscopes, and telephoto lenses. Other optical systems that use lenses and mirrors are also referred to as "catadioptric", such as surveillance catadioptric sensors.
Celestron is an American company based in Torrance, California, United States, that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan.
The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to the optical system's primary mirror entrance aperture. This design puts the focal point at a convenient location behind the primary mirror and the convex secondary adds a telephoto effect creating a much longer focal length in a mechanically short system.
The Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory in the 17th century, and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke. James Gregory was a contemporary of Isaac Newton. Both often worked simultaneously on similar projects. Gregory's design was published in 1663 and pre-dates the first practical reflecting telescope, the Newtonian telescope, built by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668. However, Gregory's design was only a theoretical description, and he never actually constructed the telescope. It was not successfully built until five years after Newton's first reflecting telescope.
The following timeline lists the significant events in the invention and development of the telescope.
William Herschel's 40-foot telescope, also known as the Great Forty-Foot telescope, was a reflecting telescope constructed between 1785 and 1789 at Observatory House in Slough, England. It used a 48-inch (120 cm) diameter primary mirror with a 40-foot-long (12 m) focal length. It was the largest telescope in the world for 50 years. It may have been used to discover Enceladus and Mimas, the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn. It was dismantled in 1840 by Herschel's son John Herschel due to safety concerns; today the original mirror and a 10-foot (3.0 m) section of the tube remain.
An aerial telescope is a type of very long focal length refracting telescope, built in the second half of the 17th century, that did not use a tube. Instead, the objective was mounted on a pole, tree, tower, building or other structure on a swivel ball-joint. The observer stood on the ground and held the eyepiece, which was connected to the objective by a string or connecting rod. By holding the string tight and maneuvering the eyepiece, the observer could aim the telescope at objects in the sky. The idea for this type of telescope may have originated in the late 17th century with the Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist Christiaan Huygens and his brother Constantijn Huygens, Jr., though it is not clear if they actually invented it.
Great refractor refers to a large telescope with a lens, usually the largest refractor at an observatory with an equatorial mount. The preeminence and success of this style in observational astronomy defines an era in modern telescopy in the 19th and early 20th century. Great refractors were large refracting telescopes using achromatic lenses. They were often the largest in the world, or largest in a region. Despite typical designs having smaller apertures than reflectors, great refractors offered a number of advantages and were popular for astronomy. It was also popular to exhibit large refractors at international exhibits, and examples of this include the Trophy Telescope at the 1851 Great Exhibition, and the Yerkes Great Refractor at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
The Hector J. Robinson Observatory, located in Lincoln Park, Michigan, is an Astronomical Observatory that features a 14-inch Celestron SCT telescope. Following renovation, the observatory resumed operations in September 2009, with First light ceremonies taking place early that September.