Seeing and Believing: A Short History of the Telescope and How We Look at the Universe

I've read a lot of books about telescopes and the history of astronomy so I was somewhat skeptical that this small format text from 1998 would be all that interesting. But it only took a few pages' reading to realize that this book was something special. It is not a bare bones recital of the standard history you read in other books, where other books summarize Galileo and the telescope in a sentence or two and then move on, Panek devotes about a 1/3 of the book to what happened *after* Galileo made his telescope but *before* the next advance in telescope design. What happened was that astronomers changed their whole way of thinking about the universe, starting with convincing themselves that the image in the telescope was actually a reality, and not some distortion of their vision. When refracting telescopes were improved later, astronomers dismissed them because the image was upside down! It was only years later that they realized it didn't matter in astronomy what was up and what was down. I've never read about this in any other books. In addition to an in-depth study of the Galileo period, William Herschel gets a large portion of the book. This is also fascinating and new because most books mention his work (a huge star catalog, discovery of Uranus), but little about the man himself. It's interesting to see here how a musician giving 8 lessons a day becomes the astronomer to the king. Lastly Hale and Hubbard get their due. Again with more insight into Hale than I've gotten out of hour-long documentaries on TV. It helps to have been exposed to some of this material elsewhere, since this book had no illustrations or photos. But it certainly fills in some gaps in history that you will find interesting.

If you've read "Longitude," by Dava Sobel, and liked it, you'll like Panek's book as well. "Longitude" is the story of the invention of a chronometer sufficiently accurate to allow navigation to a desired longitude. It was instrumental in the mapping and exploration of earth. Similarly, "Seeing and Believing" is the story of another important invention, the telescope, which allowed us to map the cosmos and, as the subtitle says, find our place in the universe. The story of the telescope begins with glass. More than 100 years before the invention of the telescope people fashioned glass into lenses that corrected poor eyesight, and found practical applications in such things as reading spectacles. It seems odd, I think, that it took so long for someone conceive of using two lenses in a tube to magnify the appearance of distant objects. [Then again, most things seem trivial in hindsight. Original thought is often underrated, and what we mistake as intelligence is often nothing more than the common man's ability to learn tricks taught by genius.] Most of us have heard of Galileo. He is famous for his use of the telescope, and for his confrontations with the Catholic Church. But Galileo wasn't the inventor of the telescope (though he made significant contributions to the telescope's design). Galileo's genius was in the way he used the telescope to study the heavens, the conclusions he drew from those observations, and how those observations began a scientific and philosophical revolution that emphasized experimentation as the foundation of science. Before the invention of the telescope the idea hadn't yet been hatched that an instrument could bring distant, essentially invisible, objects into clear view. There were initial suspicions that the telescope was just an elaborate hoax; an optical illusion. This suspicion was aided by design flaws in early telescopes that resulted in large optical aberrations, especially near the edges of the lenses. Placing myself in this historical context I find a certain amount of empathy for the skeptics. But it was overdone. Even when the telescope proved its validity through unambiguous verification, by demonstrating the ability to discern distant terrestrial objects, there was still a suspicion that it might view celestial objects with less accuracy. Old ideas die hard. It wasn't just healthy skepticism that resulted in initial criticism of celestial observations with the telescope. These observations were diametrically opposed to the philosophical constructs of the day. What these observations showed us was the picture of a universe that was utterly inconsistent with those favored by the religious and philosophical leaders of the day. Eventually, though, even religion couldn't stop the march of progress. The telescope's utility and its power to challenge belief by seeing (as the old saying goes, seeing is believing) led to a revolution not only in our understanding of the cosmos, but the obse

This is a very enjoyable book! As a professional astronomer, I can only recommend this book to all people interested on the impact that the telescope had in the history of mankind. Although there is no deep technical description of telescopes here, this is not the point. The telescope has changed and is still changing the way we see the Universe and Panek does a very good job at describing the major contributions of this wonderful invention.My only complaint is that the last chapter might be a bit too rushed compared to the previous ones since it basically reviews all modern astronomy in about 20 pages. But, otherwise, strongly recommended!

Even if you know nothing about astronomy --even if you don't care about astronomy -- you will love this book. It is written so gracefully, so unpretentiously (no 'we are starstuff' bombast) and the story it tells is so intriguing, that even science-shy readers can enjoy -- and learn. (I know because I am one.) The book is very pretty ,too -- small and slender, and with a lovely cover. A perfect present.

Richard Panek has outdone even his fine Waterloo Diamonds book. In Seeing and Believing, he unites science, history, and philosophy in a very accessible and dramatic way. I would think anyone concerned with contemporary technology issues will want to devour this book, and that it would make a stellar holiday gift for any thinking person.