Horny Saturn and the Hooker

More and more I am convinced that history of observation tools and methods is one of the most important keys for modern man to understand what is going on today in natural sciences. Humanity on the road of learning depends on the instruments it has in its possession. Think, for example, the Large Hadrone Collider of CERN.


Going to moon requires instruments

The view of the importance of learning and exploration for humanity was strongly emphsized by one of the pioneers of modern rocket science, Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) who significantly helped humanity in the mission impossible - setting foot on the Moon.

Inspired by Jules Verne he dedicated his life to building better tools for such learning and exploration - rockets for interplanetary flights and better fuels for such long trips. He lost his dear scientist daughter in 1944 when she was working in a liquid oxygen plant that exploded.

His contribution was so valued that NASA invited him in 1969 to the Space Centre in Florida to witness the   launching of Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 mission.


Oberth in 1901
A boy whose dream came true
wikimedia

Horny Saturn

Instruments of observation are crucial to our ability to understand Space.

Late 16th century Dutchmen invented lens - a simple piece of glass that has been polished to certain shape.

When such pieces of glass are set on the line of sight in given order the eye can observe items through a magnifying glass, microscope or telescope, as we call them.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) got the news in Italy and decided to make his own telescope by setting polished pieces of glass into a long tube.

When he pointed that self-made instrument to the night sky he observed, that planet Saturn has horns.

Entire humanity living on planet Earth had never before seen those horns.


Hooker
North Americans like big things, especially in Texas (starting from the cowboy hats)

So they decided to build the largest telescope ever made.

And they did it despite of all the difficulties of getting such a 2.5 meter mirror polished and transporting it to the Observatory on top of Mount Wilson where night skies are bright and rarely cloudy. At that time the light pollution from Los Angeles was not that bad.

Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) sat there many lonely cold nights and looked through Hooker far beyond Saturn and its thin beautiful rings.

The rest is history as far as the learning of humanity a la Oberth is considered. Red shift and all that. Even Albert Einstein was impressed enough to climb up to meet the man looking out there through the Hooker.

North Americans like big things.

Now they are building an even bigger space telescope to replace ageing Hubble.

Introduce the James Webb Space Telescope.

The entire world of Astronomy is waiting holding breath for the pictures to come.