The Invention of the Telescope, Research Proposal Example

Man has always sought to experiment and understand things surrounding him. Universe has been one such curiosity and humanity always tried to explore their evolution along with that of the Universe. People of all society and culture developed their own myths in this regard during early days before the invention of scientific methods to study on this. Technology came to help only very recently. Even before several hundred years’ human imagination created stories about the existence of universe. An accurate picture came to view only after development of telescope. Along with it several theories and ideas also emerged some heretical and some impossible and few both (Frank).

With the introduction of telescope several million year old superstitions gave way to scientific theories. Such theories tried to explain nature and evolution of universe. Thus telescope became the most profound and significant invention of all scientific inventions in history. It altered and keeps on altering perceptions of human beings about themselves and the world around them (G., Gingerich and Zhang). My goal in this paper is to analyse the role played by telescope in understanding heliocentric nature of the universe and thus becomes the most important invention. In this paper I also try to establish the fact that invention of telescope moved society away from mysticism based on spirituality towards a society based on proven scientific facts obtained through observation.

To achieve this goal and to discuss about the role of telescope and science of astronomy in human history it is necessary that the discussion is conducted as twofold: First to examine the technology and secondly about the impact of such technology on human society. First part will begin from crude attempts made by man to create telescope and will reach up to latest technological advances that allow astronomers to peer back through time. These technological advancements help astronomers to peer outward and at the same time edge very closer to moments just after birth of universe (York, Gingerich and Zhang). Technology itself will be examined in depth and along with that its impact on society. This will also include an examination of forced recantation of Galileo at the hands of Inquisition and the formation of scientific theories straining against superstitions and explanations on existence of nature.

Problem Statement

Evolution of modern technologies can be considered as evolution of modern society in a way. This can be considered as a chain where one advancement spawned another where by science evolved on developed in it. This has led to the formation of scientific theories and explanations, for which foundation was established centuries before such scientific developments. It can be said that the study of such advancements is the study of human history which began from attempts to harness the power of fire. Human beings developed from there to cutting edge sciences today which is capable enough to unlock all the mysteries of universe. With the evolution of science human perspective and understanding have undergone great shift. It is with the invention of telescope that human beings began to gain a clear understanding of universe and its evolution. Hence telescope is having a profound effect on very nature of scientific inquiry or it can be said that there is no other human invention so significant in all history of scientific inventions.

Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to identify the role played by telescope in the formation of modern society. The invention of the telescope moved society away from mysticism based on spirituality towards a society based on proven scientific facts obtained through observation. The telescope must be considered the most important invention in understanding the heliocentric nature of the universe.

Aims: This paper aims to analyze and understand the role played by invention of telescope in evolution of society from mysticism based on spirituality to a society based on proven scientific facts obtained through observation. It also aims to establish that the telescope must be considered the most important invention in understanding the heliocentric nature of the universe.

Significance of study: Scientific inventions form the basis of social development. It is with these inventions and scientific theories based in solid evidence that human society was able to escape from mysticism based on spirituality. Till the invention of telescope people were under the mystic belief that universe is something that controls our existence and hence it is to be feared of. Several myths regarding its origin and developments spread across humanity which guided them in their thoughts and action.

This paper will help to critically examine the relationship among various institutions, culture, society and developments of science and technology. It will also formulate an understanding of technological and scientific developments within the context of Western civilization. The researcher further develops a framework for understanding future technological innovations and scientific discoveries.

Need for study: Role played by science in human evolution is a vast topic that has been researched by several people. There are several researches and discoveries that proved to be of great use to human development like the theory E = mc². Several studies are also conducted about the importance of these researches in evolution of society. Though invention of telescope is the first move towards development of a society approving scientifically proven facts not much research can be seen conducted in this area. Invention of telescope is considered as part of history and is merely mentioned as a story that took place in history of evolution of telescopes. As invention of telescope helped human beings to evolve themselves to a scientific society rather than a society of mysticism based on religion.

Literature review

Stars and astronomy were considered as part of philosophical and religious contexts and for time determination prior to discovery of telescopes. Real nature of celestial bodies was not known to them. They were under the mysticism based on spirituality that was propagated by religious leaders. Though there were instruments for viewing celestial bodies, they were restricted to measure position of celestial bodies. This continued till middle ages and the view of the universe was the geocentric system. This was the view established during 120 AD by Greek astronomer Ptolemy. According to this view Earth is spherical in shape and stars are rotating around it daily in a fixed sphere. Sun, planets as well as moon are guided around Earth by epicycles with complicated machinery (Frank).

Pre technological society: Early man was overwhelmed by stars and planets that were seen on sky. There is little information recorded about early man’s views on universe except for some drawings on heaven, comets, eclipse and supernovae like Pueblo Petrograph. They believed that universe had some powers over existence of earth and astrology originated then as a means to predict, understand and influence events. It was Babylonians who recorded planets position, eclipse timings etc. for the first time (G., Gingerich and Zhang). Position of sun and planets were calculated by early Chinese, North Europeans and Central Americans. Stonehenge was used for calculating these and it is a big computer used for calculations.

During 500 BC ancient Greeks tried to apply the data from astronomical records of Babylonians to construct a cosmological frame work. Such data was used for navigation and related matters and along with that for thinking of new experiments. This data was used during 480BC by Thales to predict eclipse. Eratosthenes during 220 BC calculated the circumference of Earth as 40, 320 Kms. It was on the basis of Greeks information on spherical nature of earth that he calculated the circumference of Earth. It was in 330 BC that the first solar system model was developed by Heraclides beginning of debate of heliocentric nature and geocentric nature (Harrington).

From Copernicus to Galileo: It was the introduction of heliocentric system and invention of telescope during 1600 that gave a new and modern dimension to astronomy. Invention of telescope changed the understanding of universe profoundly and thus society moved towards scientifically proven facts that were obtained through observation. Heliocentric nature of universe was proven through observations that were made through telescope (Grego and Mannion).

Heliocentric system: Heliocentric system was considered for the first time during 300 BC by ancient Greek Aristarchus. Though there were observations about heliocentric system it was established by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) only in 1543. He was from Poland and the system was established in his book De Revolutionibus. According to this model Sun was the center of planetary motions and not Earth. Annual motion of sun that was apparent was considered as an illusion effect created by the motion of planets around sun. Earth was explained to rotate in its own axis and this explained the stellar sky’s diurnal rotation. Motion of planets was considered as around sun and viewed from Earth that was itself moving. Copernicus considered that the movements were circular and at the same time an epicycle system was also considered by him for describing planetary motion with accuracy (Gingerich).

After Copernicus came Tycho Brahe. He measured stars and planets and is the most accurate that has been made yet. According to him all planets except earth orbits around sun and sun orbited around Earth.

Galileo Galilei invented telescope for observing universe. He made his own observations and found crater’s and mountains on Venus, Earth’s moon and moons of Jupiter. He also noted that Venus appears as crescent just like Earth’s moon at times. His findings were supportive to Copernicus’ heliocentric theory. Galileo wrote about his observations and this angered Roman Catholic Church. He was placed under house arrest and an inquisition was carried out by the tribunal of Roman Catholic Church itself. After the inquisition Galileo was to kneel before tribunal and confess that his theory about heliocentric system was false (Grego and Mannion).

Heliocentric theory was proved in 1758 when Halley’s Comet returned in 1758. Edmund

Halley used Isaac Newton’s equations to predict the return of a comet that was seen in 1682. After 350 years of Galileo’s death Roman Catholic Church in 1992 repealed the Inquisition ruling against Galileo. Galileo was pardoned by church and his theory was also admitted as correct (Greene).

Evolution of Science and Society from Galileo to the Modern Age: In 1611 Johannes Kepler proposed a telescope with two convex lenses and Christopher Scheiner constructed such an instrument between 1613 and 1617 for first time. Telescope by Kepler is the most dominant design of major refractors post 17^th century. Isaac Newton constructed first reflecting telescope in 1668 and it was partially based on a design by James Gregory and his invention was to overcome chromatical aberration. Guillaume proposed a model which was built by James Short during 1710 – 68. It was during 1685 that Pater Zahn proposed the first idea of a schiefspiegler telescope (Harrington).

Achromatic lens was invented by Chester Moore Hall in 1733 by joining a flint glass lens with a crown glass lens and this reduced chromatic aberration. John Dollond in 1757 produced fine quality refractors using achromatic objective lenses. His son Peter Dollond in 1765, developed achromatic triplet lens by placing, convex lenses of crown glass on both sides of biconcave flint glass lens. William Herschel invented a telescope in 1780 that used only one tilted mirror. After that he made several large telescopes and in 1789 he made a 48 inch telescope (Russell).

Isaac Newton defined the force generated by Sun on his act on planets using the theoretical frame work called as Newton’s law of Gravitation. His theory was that

“Two massive bodies attract each other with a force F proportional to the product of their masses (m1 and m2) divided by the square of their distance r:

F = G*m1*m2 / r^2”. (York, Gingerich and Zhang)

 He considered the force generated between various bodies on other one and not only of two bodies. It was based on this principle that celestial mechanics was developed by mathematicians like Leonard Euler (1707-1783), Joseph Lagrange (1736-1813) and Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) to a sophisticated science during 18^th and 19^th Century. Celestial Mechanics gained ultimate fame in 1846 when Johann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910) and Heinrich d’Arrest discovered planet Neptune (G., Gingerich and Zhang).

Other than this several major developments took place in second half of 19^th century leading to significant changes on astronomy which helped upcoming of astrophysics. Some of them are Stellar Photometry, Spectroscopy, Astronomical Photography, Better large telescopes, discovery of Milky Way, Nebulae, and Stellar Systems, Stellar Evolution, Observations in the Invisible Light and Space Astronomy, Space Exploration etc.

Telescope to Explore the Past and Predict the Future: Big Bang Theory explains the beginning of universe. According to this theory universe was very dense, compact and hot during early days. A cosmic explosion called as big bang occurred around 10 – 20 billion years ago and from then onwards universe is expanding and cooling. This theory is based on mathematical equations calls as field equations set forth by general theory of relativity by Albert Einstein in 1915. Theory was further supported by Edwin Hubble, the American astronomer in 1929 when he found that the light of distant galaxies shifted towards spectrums red end and this is universal in nature. He also found that galaxies that are far away are moving away faster and thus universe is expanding very fast in a uniform manner (G., Gingerich and Zhang).

Quantum mechanics along with uncertainty principle shows, that space is not smooth uniformly and especially at very small scales. It can also be seen that definition of vacuum given by Newton will change when quantum mechanics is introduced. According to Newton Vacuum is an empty environment while quantum mechanics says that nothing can be empty. According to uncertainty principle there is change in electromagnetic field that is zero (Greene).

There is an opinion that quantum mechanics and relativity need not be messed up with, but according to Brian Greene this creates a problem while we try to understand black holes and origin of universe. A value is attributed to ? in maths for both these theories at present. It is not clear whether there was a collapse of uncertainty or whether it is stochastic or not and several suggestions are made in this regard. Some of them are of parallel universe, collapse of wave function etc. For conducting any kind of calculation telescope plays a major role in studies of universe which will affect the existence of human as a whole (Frank).

Thus telescope is used by scientists and astronomers to know about past and to predict future. It is with the aid of telescope that astronomers predict the movement of moon or other planets or celestial bodies. It is used by scientists even to understand the very nature of planets and to check whether there is any chance of life on any of them. It is also helped to take pictures of universe which can be used in studies to understand its nature.

Conclusion: Prior to discovery of telescopes it was considered that Earth is the center point around which all other planets including sun and moon is revolving around. Though there evolved the concept of heliocentric system it was not proved and not accepted by many. When telescope was invented it came evident that sun is the center point and earth is only one of those planets revolving around it. Though this raised several contentions, it was possible to give clear scientific proof for this system with the help of telescope.

As sun became center point of universe several myths and mystic concepts that existed among society proved wrong. This can be considered as the first step of human being towards scientifically proven facts. This also helped humanity to come out of mysticism based on spirituality and thus look at the world through the eyes of science. After that people began to believe in science and scientifically proven facts and thus development of society took place through various scientific inventions and discoveries. Discovery in a way helped the society to move further by following scientific results and reasoning which lead to development of society in cultural aspects as well as technological aspects. Thus telescope can be considered as the most important invention that helped to understand the heliocentric nature of universe.

References

Frank, Adam. One Universe Too Many? String Theories, The Multiverse And The Future Of Physics. 16 March 2010. 7 June 2012 <http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2010/03/one_universe_too_many_string_t.html>.

G., Donald, Owen Gingerich and Shuan-Nan Zhang. The astronomy revolution: 400 years of exploring the cosmos. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012.

Gingerich, Owen. “Galileo, the impact of the telescope, and the birth of modern astronomy.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society, 2011. 134-141.

Greene, Brian. Welcome to the multiverse. The Daily Beast. 19 May 2012. 7 June 2012 < http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee/brian-greene-welcome-to-the-multiverse.html>.

Grego, Peter and David Mannion. Galileo and 400 years of modern astronomy. New York, NY: Springer Publications, 2010.

Harrington, Jan L. Technology and society. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2009.

Russell, Bertrand. The impact of science on society. New York, NY: Routledge Publishers, 1952.

York, Donald G., Owen Gingerich and Shuan-Nan Zhang. The astronomy revolution: 400 years of exploring the cosmos. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012.