The Worlds Biggest Telescopes Through History - From Galileo to Gran Telescopio Canarias

[@scottmanley]

Do you want to know the story behind my t-shirt? kzbin.info/www/bejne/annClWifor2NfJI

[@therocinante3443]

I don't know how you have such knowledge and insight, but I'm happy I discovered your channel looking for Eve Online tutorials way back when ;)

[@brettatton]

Thanks! Astronomy meets Joy Division...perfect!

[@alttabby3633]

Love Joy Division Unknown Pleasures. I have the same shirt w/out the text. No offense Scott but oof that font, I think it's Calibri....whatever, it's fine it's fine. Design safe!

[@BenJamin-rt7ui]

The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope looks interesting project.

[@djopdam199]

Nice shirt and yes . Just wanna ad a short fact in 1618 a translation error added an S to Lipperhey's name (Lipper(s)hey) and that's why in English is often pronounced as Lippershay.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

8:30 "he eventually died and apparently none of his contemporaries have learned any skills from him" As a person working in IT support, this resonates with me

[@towers3372]

Word. My peers ask for instruction manuals instead of teaching

[@LizardKing1086]

As a building automation technician that works for a public entity, this also resonates with me.

[@neithere]

Ah the bus factor. Everyone knows about it and still always a surprise.

[@Insightfill]

I have several documents titled "If I get hit by a bus..."

[@timocallaghan4408]

As long as they don't learn, they'll always need you!

[@cubfan]

Really nice video about the history of the telescope. Good job Scott.

[@SyNcLife]

Also of the history of the efforts of gaining knowledge!

[@danielburnett910]

Idk why, but I never expected to see u here cub

[@noahwilke]

@@danielburnett910 cub’s super smart and into space!

[@DennisC43]

Great job Scott

[@H4hT53]

Arsenical bronze is actually a thing and the resulting alloy is both stronger and has better casting behaviour than regular bronze and thus can make much more exact mirrors. It's also quite old - it was pretty common in Ancient Greece because it made harder and sharper weapons than normal bronze, but fell out of favour because it tended to kill the blacksmiths.

[@eriktempelman2097]

Good one

[@MrGoesBoom]

Nice. Didn't know any of that. Love it when a channels comment section can actually be informative and fun to read, rather than the toxic cesspits so many are

[@Bird_Dog00]

Heard that as well. Antimony-bronze was also used iirc in the levante and anatolya. Generally it was a question of what metals were found with or in close proximity of copper deposits, as the classical alloy metalls for bronze, copper and tin were rarely found together. Afaik in the classical period in the mediterean area (greece, rome ect), copper generally was sourced from cyprus and tin from england.

[@PlanetEarth3141]

As an old child who has always admired the heavens, earned his astronomy merit badge, visited a few major telescopes 🔭 and memorized the constellations, I think this is the best video I've seen in a long time. It covers history, my favorite subject. Then my second favorite, Astronomy. Unlike my other tech channels, it doesn't repeat info redundantly, over and over, again and again. It's concise. Thank you Scott.

[@rydplrs71]

20 minutes of video for 6 minutes of content kills me. Scott really is great

[@PlanetEarth3141]

@@rydplrs71 Exactly. I prune out channels that need too long to get to the point and finish. Content providers like hearing themselves talk. I don't like listening to them. Say it up front and be done.

[@MrAluntus]

Scott, I love your sharing of knowledge on these subjects. It's a great reminder of how long it has taken us to get to this point in time. Thank you!

[@z3et]

Now imagine all that time that this knowledge or other forms of it was lost or not well documented because... wars. Imagine how vastly more advanced we would have been... PS: Another great video, as always.

[@CalmDownShh]

@@z3et You do realize that we wouldn't be as far along as we are now without wars. The advancement of many technologies such as ones responsible to get the JWST into space only moved as fast as it did due to the funding/race for better tech due to wars.

[@brucegoodwin634]

Well said Mr. Osman. …and, implied: how much we will learn in the next few decades, yes?

[@Afro408]

Nah, it’s only a very short time, compared to the time mankind has been staring and marvelling at the night sky. 😉

[@user-ux6tk8pi9i]

I pooped my pants. I sharted.

[@geoffbarton5917]

Been an amateur astronomer for many years although mostly inactive as I grow old. I built a 13" Newtonian with a modified Dobson mount. I ground the mirror myself and built most of the rest from materials anyone can get at your local hardware store. It has been a wonderful hobby where I have spent many a satisfying night gazing at distant objects. Thank you Scott for sharing this great video.

[@MrGonzonator]

This video has huge scope.

[@ForeverNeverwhere1]

Sadly, I had trouble focusing.

[@RCAvhstape]

It made me reflect on things.

[@MrGonzonator]

@@ForeverNeverwhere1 great observation.

[@benejeneb]

😁

[@stevenson720]

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. 😂

[@donlourie769]

Your last comment is so amazing! Scott can actually wear me out with technical and historical details. But the foundation to his essays gives focus to the human part. Well done.

[@wyattclark4222]

Love this video Scott! I work as a telescope engineer at Lowell Observatory and although I see and work on telescopes every day your videos always teach me something new. I would love to see a future video on optical interferometry. The Navy Precision Optical Interferometer, for example, can synthesize a 314 m aperture telescope. Thanks for the great video, I look forward to the next one!

[@PMakerYT]

"very large telescope" "extremely large telescope" "overwhelmingly large telescope (cancelled)" I just love it when science names stuff :D

[@LouseGrouse]

Few decades later "Absolutely humongous telescope" "Holy cow this is going to be a mahoosively sized lad of a telescope (still in planning)"

[@greghansen38]

I was looking forward to the OWL.

[@jeremytheimer7443]

Quite amazing how far human curiosity has taken us. From the exponentially fast increase in mirror size to adaptive optics, astronomy really is the best representation of the spirit of curiosity.

[@yndasixela]

we couldn’t have accomplished it all without perseverance

[@jeremytheimer7443]

@@yndasixela I promise the pun was unintended.

[@phillyphakename1255]

Can you imagine taking some of those 16th century astronomers to a 30 meter telescope?

[@jimeththemelancollie351]

Curiosity is the basis of science. Our cats died nobly.

[@matgeezer2094]

And we are lucky enough to be living through the golden age of astronomy

[@RobinWootton]

Feel like this adds yet another facet to your repertoire of compact presentational formats. Much appreciated

[@AndrzejSkrobski]

Hi Scott, I live in Ireland and totally agree with you on the weather here. I purchased my first Newtonian last year and on average there is maybe 1 night a month with really good conditions. This makes me appreciate each one of them even more 😅

[@bigX0003]

No question it was a horrible choice of locations but still pretty cool we had the largest telescope im the world for a while haha. You can actually still go see the telescope at birr castle.

[@David-xh9cw]

If thick cloud observation was a thing we'd be landed

[@mattbradbury1797]

Check out Birr Castle, I was there a few years ago and the telescope housing is still there and the grounds are pretty nice

[@thetheflyinghawaiian]

I like that "overwhelmingly large telescope (cancelled)" lurking in the background of the scale comparisons in the end. Great name.

[@gordonrichardson2972]

Scott didn't mention the OWL proposal.

[@MarkusNemesis]

I went looking for this comment. It did indeed live up to its name.

[@jmchez]

@@MarkusNemesis XKCD has proposed, the "infinite telescope", the "ultimate telescope" and the "telescope of devastation" as future names.

[@meme2287]

I remember looking at Saturn through my niece's £80 refracting telescope. Although not as clear a picture as those I've seen on TV and the internet, it was amazing to know that light from the Sun was bouncing back from Saturn and its rings, passing through Earth's atmosphere into the telescope, and entering my eye directly.

[@florianbappler7242]

I totally agree. The moment I've seen Saturn through a small cheap telescope I was hooked on astronomy. I've seen countless pictures in books etc since I was a child, but seing the thing in real live was literally eye-opening.

[@daszieher]

That sensation of immediate reality of what is being observed, is precisely what I believe keeps human-optical astronomical observations alive.

[@Mark_Bridges]

@@florianbappler7242 I'm the opposite. I've hardly used my telescope in the last maybe 15 years since the images available online are better than what I could see through the scope.

[@neithere]

I got my ST80 after Juno had already delivered its fantastic detailed photos with the palpable depth of clouds. And yet the first time I noticed the stripes was a unique powerful experience for the reason you mentioned. Then Saturn... Even some random cluster, first a barely visible smudge and then after a minute you realise that you do see the individual stars... Nothing compares to these moments.

[@TheRogueWolf]

I have a similar story from when I was around twelve years old- standing on the rear porch of the home of a friend of the family as he centered his telescope on Saturn. It was just barely powerful enough to let the eye differentiate the rings from the planet, but I was absolutely stunned that I could see something so far away when all I'd ever seen before was pictures in books. Ever since then, images of space have always wowed me.

[@brentjablonski3730]

You always deliver great videos but this one was superb. Thank you. I only knew a few of the highlights of scope development, this really filled in some gaps! I wondered why you skipped Herschel's discover of Uranus - then learned that he used the older 20 Foot scope for that.

[@YourMCAdmin]

I'm giggling! I love when you deliver a joke with such a dry, scientific-sounding explanation.

[@Axonteer]

me giggle too!

[@crxtodd16]

Yes herro I are hunam too.

[@slcpunk2740]

And now my telescope is drunk 🤪

[@Mr.aAdDies]

I didn't giggle Humour more often than not DOES NOT COMPUTE🤔

[@bravo-93]

Same 😂

[@diegoaduriz9433]

The story of how they built and drove the Hale telescope mirror to Mount Palomar, which I read as a kid from the pages of "The Universe", one of the science books of an incredible collection of TIME Books, simply got me hooked for life. Once I could I visited the Hale telescope. Amazing memories. And I managed to get one second hand "The Universe" book copy through ETSY last year. We are living very interesting times. Best regards!

[@lethargogpeterson4083]

They have, or at least had, a failed first attempt at casting the Palomar mirror on display at the Corning Museum of Glass, if you are ever in Western New York state.

[@randledewees7876]

A Classical Cassegrain telescope, what was described by Cassegrain, has a concave parabolic primary and a convex hyperbolic secondary mirror. The parabolic focal point (prime focus) is coincident on the front hyperbola foci, and the Cassegrain (or Principal) focal plane is at the back hyperbolic foci. The diagram in the vid at about 6:00 doesn't show the imaginary hyperbola but it's there, a bit to the left of the principal focus. There is no possible combination using an (prolate) elliptical convex secondary and parabolic primary., both ellipse foci are on the far side of the secondary. You can have an elliptical primary and a spherical convex secondary, this is a Dall-Kirkham Cassegrian. You can also have a spherical primary and a convex mirror that has an oblate ellipse profile, this nasty design is called a Carmichel- Pressman Cassegrain (to be avoided for several reasons). Finally, there is the Ritchy-Chretien Cassegrain or RC. These are very popular because the design is coma free. BTW, the history of the telescope is covered very well, at least into the early 50's, in "History of the Telescope" by Henry C. King. I think this was Dr. Kings astronomy dissertation that then got published for general interest. It is still in print. I was surprised that Professor Manley has some details in his video that are not in the History of the Telescope.

[@scottmanley]

Yeah. I should have.known that but somehow never noticed until you pointed it out…. The Paloma’s 200” telescope was going to be a Richey-Chretien design but Hale and Rickey had a falling out.

[@Mochu_s_Junkyard]

I would love a video about the evolution of that mounts till getting to actual motorized ones, and the maths behind it :) As someone that is trying to build a telescope I find this a lot more complex than the optics

[@jmchez]

Joseph Franhauffer designed the first equatorial mounts so that a clockwork mechanism could track an object in space while the earth rotated as opposed to having to change the altitude and azimuth constantly. As Scott said, equatorial mounts were used up to the building of the Hale telescope but, by then, the mount had gotten bigger than the telescope. In the 1980's with the advent of extra computing power, alt-azimuth mounts could be used again because the computer could track objects smoothly. This greatly reduced the size of the mounts and the dome housing them. The Kecks had smaller domes than the smaller Hale. A computer could also be used to manipulate segmented mirrors with a new technology called, "Active Optics". Dr. Jerry Nelson at the Lawrence-Berkely National Laboratory pioneered the idea of segmented mirrors and active optics that led to today's mega telescopes, all of which, use segmented mirrors and active optics.

[@mrb.5610]

+1 for that ! Also wouldn't mind a little bit on the Barnes Wallis design of mount used on the Australian Parkes telescope.

[@ceejay0137]

@@jmchez With an alt-az mount you not only have to track the target in two directions, but the field of view also rotates slowly, and for long-exposure images this has to be compensated for as well. It can be done, obviously, but it adds another layer of complexity to everything.

[@tomferrin1148]

Scott, amazing job researching telescope history! Very impressive and communicated so well, with clarity and the ability to hold viewer interest. Well done sir.

[@alexlandherr]

I’ve been on a tour of Gran Telescopio Canarias. Very cool (and so was the experience). Also came quite close to the two Tjerenkov telescopes at Roque de los Muchachos.

[@alaric_]

Did it include a exciting and hair raising adventure of a bus ride towards the top? And even more exciting and even more hair raising trip down? I have once been on a bus on Canary islands on the narrow roads of a mountain and never, never ever again! :D The speed was not the whole issue, big part was the lack of guard rails!

[@simontyrrell8866]

Hi Scott, I love your videos, thanks for making them. I spent summer 1980 listening to Closer, we didn't know Ian was dead, when we found out it just seemed to make the music even better. Great to see a joy division t shirt, brings back old memories

[@SRFriso94]

I feel like your last point is underappreciated. Over the Christmas week, I spent the holiday with my parents in a sparsely populated area of the country - those are not very numerous in The Netherlands. One night, the skies were nice and clear, so I went out stargazing even though it was bitterly cold, but I walked out beyond the light pollution, and it was one of the most beautiful things ever. I inspired my dad, because he did the same thing when I came back, and he shared my opinion. Then the next day, a friend came by, and apparently my dad had texted him, because he told me he had done the same thing as well, and again, thought it was gorgeous.

[@timocallaghan4408]

I'll never forget when I first went to very rural normandy in 2014 and realised just how many stars there really are.. wanted to cry it was so beautiful! Where in the Netherlands is possible for this?

[@miketothe2ndpwr]

Scott I miss your gaming videos. I absolutely adore your space vids, that's how I found you, so no harm. But your Kerbal and my special favorite your programming related games were always a treat. Anyways thanks for the great vid.

[@donaldjmccann]

I have always been interested in astronomy. In 2006 I took the evening tour of Kitt Peak during which I was able to observe planets and galaxies first hand. There is nothing quite like looking at the light coming from a faraway galaxy through an eyepiece. No photograph does it justice. I highly recommend the Kiitt Peak tour.

[@jsmariani4180]

I toured Kitt Peak during the day, and they wouldn't let us beyond a glass partition far from the telescopes. Did you really look through an eyepiece?

[@stefanschneider3681]

Beautiful last sentence! When telscoping out in my backyard, I always have a little chair with me. And every time I go out (clear skies have been rare in the middle of europe) I try to take a step back from the fascination of all that technique and just sit down for 10 Minutes. And I just look into the sky with the eyes well adapted to the dark. It‘s breathtaking and humbling at the same time!

[@SeaTacDelta]

I love these videos Scott please keep doing them. They are greatly appreciated. I'd also like to mention to everyone that many observatories have great visitor centers and are great places to go visit. I've been to both Mount Wilson, outside LA, and Lick, outside San Jose. The drive (or ride) out to them is great along winding mountain roads, they often have good hiking around them due to said mountains, and the visitor centers are really educational. Where ever I travel for work or play I look to see if there is an observatory to visit.

[@jpdemer5]

The Lick has a great photo of Half Dome, in Yosemite (on the other side of the state), taken through the telescope. It'll be a long time before California's air is ever clear enough to repeat that feat.

[@chrispeoples4606]

Excellent presentation Scott! I'll definitely use it in my high school physics classes when I teach applications of geometric optics.

[@joshuakohr7602]

Everyone: Clicking on a rocket video Scott: So now we are comparing sizes throughout history. I love the video. Good info tbh.

[@supergeek1418]

I'm kind of surprised that you didn't mention the Yerkes observatory on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which is the world's largest refractor telescope. It began observations in 1897. It was part of the University of Chicago, and its architecture reflects that heritage. The observation platform also happens to be the world's largest elevator (in terms of square footage or area).

[@shagiephoto]

For a few years, the Lick Observatory, outside of San Jose was the largest refracting telescope. It was also the first telescope located in a permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The story of James Lick could get its own "wait, really?!"

[@BlueSkaros444]

I lived near Yerkes Observatory and was also disappointed it wasn't mentioned. You can see it called out in the upper left corner of the telescope diagram shown towards the end.

[@raycote568]

Yerkes deserved a mention as much as the others. Such a beautiful facility.

[@DSOImager]

These giant scopes that are coming online are very exciting! What's also pretty incredible is that today.. with modest telescopes, a computer, and a cmos sensor... amateurs/hobbyist can take pictures of these deep sky objects that rival (and in some cases surpass) the very best prior to Hubble.

[@kharnethebetrayer4125]

Even without the computer and sensor, a simple t adapter for a camera or phone attachment can get some amazing pictures.

[@DSOImager]

@@kharnethebetrayer4125 Correct! Except dedicated consumer grade astro camera's use the same cmos sensor technology that's found in DSLRs/Mirrorless cameras.... and cell phones. Many of the newer phones even have an astrophotography mode. If you could put them on a tracker.. you'd even be able to take longish exposures with them.. What an age we live in :)

[@kharnethebetrayer4125]

@@DSOImager I am just getting into astrophotography using my phone, its very exciting how phones have come such a long way. I wonder if my phone has that setting(galaxy s7). Still a lot to learn, but I want pictures of nebulae preferably.

[@DSOImager]

@@kharnethebetrayer4125 The galaxy 7 should have the "pro mode" for the camera (from camera app, go to more, then you can see the pro mode, there is also a night mode). The pro mode allows you to manually control exposure and iso settings. Nebula will be tough straight from the phone... although you can get shots of the Orion nebula with it. In the summer you can get milky way shots from a decently dark sky (bortle scale 4 or lower). Try 3-5 second exposures.. and adjust the iso up until you can see it. Going longer in exposure will give star trails due to the Earths rotation. Astrophotography is a great hobby.. I fell for it pretty hard.. as evidenced by my channel :)

[@kharnethebetrayer4125]

@@DSOImager there is a lot of info there, thanks. It will take me a little time to work all that out, but I didnt even know s7 had that, so big thanks. Will have a lot of fun playing now.

[@myramitchell8511]

I love your videos! I am also a life-long Joy Division fan... I don't have much material to love, but I LOVE that you have the T-shirt!

[@IronTulikettu]

Birr Castle where Leviathan is located is in the middle of a beautiful arboreal garden. Been there before and it was incredible.

[@gdarbari]

What a beautifully compiled presentation of scientific history. Hats off to you Scott 👍

[@padraicbrady]

The Leviathan has actually been restored to working order - those old photos came in handy! It's been years since I last visited, but it's back on my list now to get back to Birr Castle over the Summer. They installed a LOFAR radio telescope in the same area too more recently.

[@jonkayl9416]

This is the best telescope video on youtube. Thank you so much for making!

[@yumazster]

Great video! Thanks for mentioning Hevelius. Funny fact with his monster telescope is that it was burned in a feud with a neighbour of Hevelius. Hevelius was a mean spirited codger as the legend would have it 😁. I can also strongly recommend Richard Learner's 'Astronomy through the Telescope' as a book on the subject (telescopes, not Hevelius specifically).

[@arctic_haze]

Hevelius became the royal astronomer to the Polish king and even named a constellation "Sobieski's Shield" after him, now called simply Shield.

[@malcolmthomas817]

Thanks Scott, concise, informative and interesting as ever. Keep up the good work.

[@BytebroUK]

Some nice dry one-liners; well done Scott! Anyway, do you have any idea how long it may have been *after* the development of the telescope that someone said something like "If I point this at the sun it will boil my eyeball - we need to project this image onto a screen!", and thus solar astronomy may have been born?

[@jpdemer5]

Evidently, Galileo thought of it, and with the help of Benedetto Castelli, developed a method for projecting the image of the sun onto a screen. Christoph Scheiner, at the same time, used colored glass filters, which not only cut down on the intensity of the light but presumably reduced chromatic aberration as well.

[@studiokaufman]

...with all the humble casualness of a spaghetti recipe you have enlightened me...WOW.! Your grasp of the story behind “the specs” is amazing. Thank you for your gift.

[@LadyAnuB]

The joys of wide angle Mk1 eyeball viewing are being taken away by modern night lighting

[@RightWingNutter]

Superb short documentary/history. Especially interesting (to me) was the early development of reflectors along with the contemporaneous improvements of refractors. Nicely done.

[@EstelonAgarwaen]

as a photography and lens nerd i love the talk about abberations!!!!!!!!111!!!

[@TomUlcak]

Incredible video. I'm blown away. You are in the groove, mate.

[@frankbieser]

Great vid Scott. If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend the book, "The Perfect Machine" by Ronald Florence, on the history of the construction of the Mount Palomar telescope, which necessarily covers the construction of earlier large telescopes in the early 20th century.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Yup, and progress stalled for a good 30+ years after the Hale Telescope, because it was pushing the limits of what was practical to build at the time (single mirror, equatorial mount) in that size. We didn't start getting a lot of big telescopes again until the '80s and beyond, when the Multiple Mirror Telescope of 1979 showed a new way forward: combining light from multiple (smaller and cheaper) mirrored surfaces, and using computers and precision motors to keep focus and to track with a (smaller and cheaper) altitude-azimuth mount. Edited to add: And even single-mirror telescopes benefited from the innovation. The active optics tech in multiple-mirror telescopes could also adjust a flexible-enough single mirror. And a single mirror could be cast in a rotating mold to get approximately the right curvature while the glass was still liquid -- you just had to spin it at the right speed.

[@dwcalex]

If you ever get to Berlin, you might want to checkout the Archenhold Oberservatory. Built 1896, 68cm aperture and 21m focal length. And open to the public as a museum.

[@alejandrocapell2780]

Great video Scott! It would be cool to get a companion video on space based telescopes to accompany the deployment of Webb

[@Metal_craft_fpv]

You are too funny. Never watch these videos for the laughs, but they're there. Keep up the good work 👏 🙌 👍

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

Great history lesson Scott.

[@st.charlesstreet9876]

Love this brief history of the telescopes! One of the best posts or videos on the subject. Thanks Scott🤓

[@MMM_MADness]

True, the big telescopes haven't taken away that view. Most of that was taken away by light pollution, at least where I live. The amount of stars visible to the Mk-1 eyeball now compared to when I was a child kind of sadden me when looking up at the night sky.

[@johnosullivan675]

I lived in a city growing up and I could see all 7 pleiades. Now I live in the countryside and i can only see 5.

[@drewthompson7457]

I"m planning on selling my scope. Light pollution is so bad now there are no dark skies withing driving range.

[@jaydonbooth4042]

Very interesting to see the progression of telescopes and astronomy. I just got my first telescope for christmas, a 4.5in newtonian reflector, unfortunately winter isn't so nice for opportunities to use it, but I was able to go out 1 day so far and see Venus in phase and Saturn's rings and Jupiter and its moons and it's amazing to see those things with your own eyes with just a couple mirrors and a lens, pictures just can't do it justice. Even when we have pictures from Cassini of Saturn in beautiful detail, which are truly amazing, there's just something different and special to see the rings with your own eyes. I can't wait to get some better eyepieces and see more detail. Would also love to see more videos from you about telescopes and astronomy, like the one with the $5 telescope, but more in-depth and covering more of the basics of amateur astronomy.

[@neithere]

Very true. It's a special experience, not less or more magical than seeing the best photos from the probes. The telescope gives a sense of connection. It's not just "the" Saturn, it's now *your* Saturn.

[@alexsiemers7898]

Still waiting for the release of the MK2 eyeball, hopefully they at least make it a buy-one-get-one-free.

[@RCAvhstape]

Oscar Goldman is who you want to talk to about this.

[@zacklewis342]

I got tired of waiting and just upgraded my Mk.1s to 20/10 with a fancy laser. True story.

[@PlanetEarth3141]

@@RCAvhstape Exactly my thoughts. That for about six million you can use a Mark 2 eyeball on a mobile mount.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@PlanetEarth3141 Well, in the 70s, they'd throw in an arm and two legs along with the eye. Inflation, though.

[@PlanetEarth3141]

@@RCAvhstape In terms of TV plus sci-fi, it still could be that Steve turns out to be a near perfect foretelling of humanity's future as a cyborg species. I find that an acceptable combination of the best of biological and technological evolution to counter disease, aging and becoming interplanetary.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Thanks for the guide on upgrading the observational capacity of the Mk.1 sight devices, Scott!

[@ailivac]

If you go to the glass museum in Corning, NY you can see their first attempt at casting the Palomar mirror, which failed as the glass was being poured because pieces of the mold broke apart.

[@jmchez]

The Corning guys made a 60 inch and a 120-inch practice mirrors, both of which were sold and used. The 120 inch "practice" mirror was sold to the Lick observatory and became the second largest telescope in the world at the time.

[@ivanscottw]

As usual, an iconic delivery of knowledge ! Thank you !

[@danielwendlick784]

Re Newton using arsenic in his mirrors: Arsenic bronze is harder and tougher than tin bronze, and this had been known for thousands of years. This would likely make it easier to grind without scratching or warping. The problem was that smelting the arsenic ore produced toxic fumes and would shorten the lives of the people making items from it dramatically.

[@jmchez]

Ironically, Newton lived to his mid-eighties, even though he was using arsenic and mercury for many of his experiments.

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

@@jmchez I think that he suffered a bit from dementia... perhaps brought on by heavy metal toxicity.

[@willemkaret1568]

You're a great educator. Thanks a lot for this overview.

[@dvv18]

The observatory that the BTA belonged to also had a huge radio telescope at the foothills, the RATAN-600. A small town halfway between the two hosted resident astronomers and engineers. I spent a week or so there in the late 80s helping to adapt some software for their computers. Mountain hikes, skinny-dipping in mountain streams, ah, the memories…

[@jeromethiel4323]

This, while not rocketry, was extremely interesting. I knew some of this, but was ignorant of a LOT of the history, since i was never interested in telescopy or astronomy. So thank you for the introduction to this fascinating field.

[@gerdisrael5301]

2019 we happened to visit the small Irish town of Birr by chance and learn to our surprice that the once largest telescope of the world stands in the park right beside our B&B. The Leviathan is very impressive even in the Irish rain. Unfortunately we missed the demonstration of its function they still do for the public now and then.

[@markfla]

My parents grew up across the street from the castle there. It's a cool place

[@jbmurphy4]

I must take a trip to see it sometime. I must admit the Irish weather does put me off putting in the effort to upgrade my own telescope, but visibility is very good here on clear frosty nights.

[@Pskpsi]

I had the chance to take a few astronomy electives while I was a student at the University of Virginia, and I loved going up to the McCormick observatory. It has a behemoth of a refractor, which I think was the largest or second largest refracting scope when it was built in the 1880s. It also has a neat little museum, and they hold public viewing nights!

[@stevenemert837]

9:33 ... and it is cool that today you can see the surviving bottom portion of Herschel's telescope at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and the original speculum mirror from the scope in the London Science Museum. Edit: Oops, as seen at 9:37 in the video. But if you go there yourself, you can take a picture of it and yourself together.

[@tullyal]

Great video - nice to see Ireland and the Birr telescope mentioned.

[@brick6347]

Hevelius owned a brewery. Doubtless it helped his apertures a fair bit.

[@DavidAlvarado-js3qq]

You, sir, are a metaphorical telescope that guides my eyes towards the wonders of space. Thank you!

[@alta367]

At 8:20, the price list is in guineas, which didn't help me much. Perhaps the Brits already know this, but a guinea contains 1/4oz of gold. In gold price, today the entry level scope would cost $1500 ranging up to a whopping $400K for the flagship option.

[@johndododoe1411]

In standard British currency, 1 guinea = 21 shillings = £1.05 . It was commonly used as an advertising trick to make shop prices seem lower.

[@esquilax5563]

A guinea was also 21 shillings, which would be equivalent to £1.05

[@stankythecat6735]

This was a particularly good episode.

[@dansv1]

For a very in depth account of the building of the Palomar Telescope, read The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope by Ronald Florence. It’s one of the best books I have ever read. It’s truly awe inspiring.

[@eriktempelman2097]

Does it include the story of the mirror's transport across the states?

[@dansv1]

@@eriktempelman2097 Yes, in detail.

[@jmchez]

The Road to Palomar is a documentary based on the book. Fantastic story. It really shows what a great man, George Ellery Hale was. His idea and efforts to get wealthy philanthropists to build bigger and bigger telescopes really paid off. He also was the one who hired Shapley (measured the size of the Milky way), then Hubble.

[@nakfan]

Wow - what a great walkthrough of the history of telescopes. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and excitement.

[@MoonWeasel23]

The large binocular telescope is weird. It has better resolution in one axis than another, so you can theoretically get an image of an object at the same resolution all around, but it takes all night to do it.

[@johndododoe1411]

You can probably get the same effect with a pair of Mk1 eyeballs in their usual configuration.

[@baddestmofoalive]

Holy cow man you have a great voice for doing these videos! Very interesting and well done!

[@Visuwyg]

15:24 what's the story of the "Overwhelmingly large telescope"? :D Did its cost overwhelm them?

[@mikicerise6250]

Yep. Turned into the Overwhelmingly Expensive Telescope. xD

[@anthoneyking6572]

Wow that was a Lot of Info to take in that must of been Hard work to do so thank you Scott Great Vlog

[@jeffpkamp]

Looking at all those independent segment mirror telescopes at the end there, makes me wonder how hard it'd be to put up hundreds of small independent mirror satellites into space, and use them to create a huge space telescope. I've always wondered if you could put mirror sections at the l4 and l5 Lagrange points, and create a massive synthetic aperture telescope. I'm not sure how you'd keep the collector in the right orientation though...

[@faroncobb6040]

@Dave Pin That is not how it works. In order to treat different mirrors as part of a larger mirror you have to be able to know and control the distance between the mirrors to within a small fraction of the wavelength you are looking at. The Large Binocular Telescope and the Very Large Telescope manage to combine images by sending the light down paths that line it all up so that it is within a few nanometers of perfectly in phase, whereas radio telescopes can just record the phase data of the much larger wavelengths they work with and combine it later on a computer. But nobody has ever managed to engineer a system precisely enough to allow that kind of phase recording for the optical wavelengths, and without that the images cannot be combined in any useful way. Until the requisite technology is achieved we won't be making synthetic aperture telescopes in space.

[@johnhjic2]

Hello Scott, What a super little video as always. Great work, thank you for all you do. Keep well, keep safe and enjoy life.

[@RCAvhstape]

15:14 "Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (canceled)" cool name, too bad it didn't get built.

[@sheldoniusRex]

When transporting the mirror for the Hale telescope, Corning contracted an armored train car to protect the glass from anyone who might shoot at it while it was in transit across the United States.

[@AD_SPACE_2024_...Aditya...]

scott you are the best my freind love from india

[@paulhaynes8045]

Excellent - really enjoyable. Definitely the best KZbin channel.

[@S1nwar]

i heared you can upgrade the mark1 eyeball with a reflecting retina to let the photons pass twice through the nerves

[@jeffreypierson2064]

If you are a cat...

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

Yeah, too bad our eyes were "Made Wonderfully!" backward! How come gawd got it right in cephalopods then? Ok. Side story here...

[@haesge61]

Scott, what a great video again. Enjoyed it very much!

[@TheBackyardChemist]

0:40 I mean there are other things well known for dilating the pupils, but I guess there is a reason why Albert Hoffman is not known for astronomy papers

[@davidb6576]

Or Albert Hofmann even... :)

[@john-r-edge]

The Huygens family lived in Voorburg, South Holland, Netherlands. This is a few km from The Hague. Their residence "Hofwijck" is preserved as a museum definitely worth a visit. Constantine Huygens was famous as a composer. His son Constantijn was the Astronomer referred to as Huygens. So fabulously talented family in both art and science.

[@DeathValleyDazed]

In hindsight this retro- video is 20-20! 🔭

[@BChandl13]

The way Scott says mirror is just so pleasant to listen to.

[@LadyAnuB]

So Scott, what is your favorite eyeball impairing alcohol? The one from the land where you grew up? Beer? Wine?

[@phuzz00]

Buckfast?

[@robpersons]

Terrific video. Love the historical perspectives.

[@Feefa99]

Yes, let's compare those long and big things

[@Zebra_M]

Thanks for this video about Big Telescope and how they have been watching the entire universe for centuries now. It's about time people learned about it!

[@vogonjelc]

All I take from this video is size does matter. And Cassegrain design is used on radar antenas.

[@BronxProject]

That's what she said... eventually

[@Carstuff111]

And stuff like this, is one of many reasons I love this channel :)

[@bobaloo2012]

Good for you for giving Zwicke credit. He doesn't get much because people couldn't stand him, he was quite the jerk by all accounts, but he was right about a lot of things that were only proven later.

[@jmchez]

He was a brilliant sociopath. Never got along with his colleagues, whom he called "spherical bastards" because they were bastards from any angle (like a sphere is a sphere from any angle). That's why his ideas were disregarded for so long.

[@timeflysintheshop]

Great video! I especially liked the end bit about being able to take in wide angle views of the cosmos. 😁👍

[@prasadt772]

Can you imagine bringing Newton to today's world and he would be so humbled by sheer advancement.

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

AND perhaps he could speak to the 'flerfurs' too! Once he understood General Relativity, he could explain to them how his equations work JUST FINE... for most things, but Einstien is "more correct" than he is!

[@prasadt772]

@@rickkwitkoski1976 ha ha. I was saying in a sense that he would need to study at least 10 years to catch up. Child born in 90s would on par with Newton's understanding of the world after 10 years.

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

This was a pretty cool one to listen to while I was making dinner. Thanks Scott!

[@XMarkxyz]

As the "Journal for the History of Astronomy" states Marius discovered Jupiter's moons one day after Galileo but most importantly he published it years after Galileo

[@ravensrulzaviation]

What a great video Scott. Great history lesson. You are awesome