History of Optical Telescopes in Astronomy

Wilson Wall has been a professional geneticist for more than 30 years, including postgraduate training as a clinical cytogeneticist. He has worked as team leader and section head in his role as a clinical cytogeneticist in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He carried out doctoral and postdoctoral research into areas of molecular genetics, specifically in evolution and forensic applications. For many years he was secretary to the History Committee of the Institute of Biology. Wall is also an avid amateur astronomer. As a professional microscopist, Wall designed microscope lenses. His pursuits in amateur astronomy and interest in lenses eventually led him to build his own telescope lenses and telescopes, which he discovered were easier to design than microscope lenses but harder to use. As his work progressed in building better telescopes, he recognized the important connection between the development of the technology and the evolution of the science of astronomy, aswell as the social setting in which this took place. Recognizing that there was a story here to tell, he became motivated him to write this book.

“This book succeeds in picking up the most important points, … .There are illustrations, both monochrome and colour, … two shows telescopes — Hevelius’ 210-foot refractor and the Hubble Space Telescope.” (The Observatory, Vol. 139 (1270), June, 2019)

• Preface.- Table of Contents.- Book Summary.- Chapter 1: Astronomy as a Science in Need of a Tool.- Chapter 2: The Invention of the Telescope.- Chapter 3: Developments in Optics and the Newly Invented Telescope.- Chapter 4: Aerial Refractor Telescopes and the Development of Reflectors.-  Chapter 5: The Ascent of the Mirror Lens and Reflecting Telescopes.- Chapter 6: Industrial Life Creating Fine Instruments and Polluting the Skies.- Chapter 7: Moving Observations off the Planet.- Chapter 8: The Hubble Space Telescope.- Chapter 9: The Future: James Webb and Beyond.- Chapter 10: Timeline of the Optical Telescope.- Chapter 11:  People in the Text.- Index.