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Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

1608 - Hans Lippershey tries to patent an optical refracting telescope
1609 - Galileo Galilei builds his first optical refracting telescope
1641 - William Gascoigne[?] invents telescope cross hairs
1661 - James Gregory proposes an optical reflecting telescope
1668 - Isaac Newton constructs the first optical reflecting telescope
1733 - Chester Moor Hall[?] invents the achromatic lens refracting telescope
1758 - John Dolland[?] reinvents the achromatic lens
1789 - William Herschel finishes a 49-inch optical reflecting telescope---located in Slough, England[?]
1840 - J.W. Draper[?] invents astronomical photography and photographs the Moon
1845 - Lord Rosse[?] finishes the Birr Castle 72-inch optical reflecting telescope---located in Parsonstown, Ireland[?]
1872 - Henry Draper[?] invents astronomical spectral photography and photographs the spectrum of Vega
1890 - Albert Michelson proposes the stellar interferometer
1892 - George Hale[?] finishes a spectroheliograph[?]---allows the Sun to be photographed in the light of one element only
1897 - Alvan Clark[?] finishes the Yerkes 40-inch optical refracting telescope[?]---located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin
1917 - Mount Wilson 100-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Mount Wilson, California
1930 - Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot[?] invents the coronagraph[?]
1930 - Karl Jansky builds a 30-meter long rotating aerial radio telescope
1933 - Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot[?] invents the Lyot filter[?]
1934 - Bernhard Schmidt[?] finishes the first 14-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope[?]
1936 - Palomar 18-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Palomar, California[?]
1937 - Grote Reber[?] builds a 31-foot radio telescope
1947 - Bernard Lovell[?] and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 218-foot non-steerable radio telescope
1949 - Palomar 48-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Palomar, California
1949 - Palomar 200-inch optical reflecting telescope begins regular operation---located in Palomar, California
1957 - Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 250-foot steerable radio telescope
1957 - Peter Scheuer[?] publishes his PhD method for obtaining source counts of spatially unresolved sources
1960 - Martin Ryle[?] tests Earth rotation aperature synthesis[?]
1960 - Owens Valley 27-meter radio telescopes begin operation---located in Big Pine, California
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---183 km baseline[?]
1969 - Observations start at Big Bear Solar Observatory[?]---located in Big Bear, California[?]
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
1974 - Anglo-Australian 153-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Siding Springs, Australia[?]
1975 - Gerald Smith, Frederick Landauer, and James Janesick use a CCD to observe Uranus---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
1980 - Completion of construction of the VLA---located in Socorro, New Mexico
1993 - Keck 10-meter optical/infrared reflecting telescope begins operation---located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
1997 - The Japanese Halca satellite begins operations, producing first VLBI observations from space. --- 25000 km maximum baseline[?]
1998 - First light at VLT1, the 8.2 m ESO telescope.
2001 - First light at VLTI. Operations in the interferometry mode of VLT start at ESO --- 103 m baseline[?]

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