Eyes on the Sky - The story of telescopes
By Biman Nath
Vigyan Prasar | 2009 | ISBN: 978-81-7480-196-8 | PDF | 17.1 mb 
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1609 was a watershed year in the history of science. Spectacle makers found that a certain combination of lenses made distant objects appear closer. Galileo Galilei made a telescope of his own and looked at the stars with it. And what he found changed the way mankind thought about Nature.
Since then astronomers have built bigger and better telescopes, to view the universe in ways never thought possible before, in different 'colours' of light, visible, infrared, radio, X-ray and so on, and even with the help of particles. Now they are even building telescopes to detect waves in space-time.
This book chronicles the history of telescopes in easy language and with many illustrations. It explains what drives astronomers to build big telescopes, how engineers help them with technological innovations and how the findings with these telescopes have enriched our mind.

The year 2009 has been declared as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA-2009) coinciding with the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia nova (New Astronomy). The central theme of the IYA-2009 is “The Universe Yours to Discover.” The IYA-2009 aims to help people realize how astronomy has enriched almost every human culture and rediscover their place in the Universe through the day and night time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.

About the Author
Biman Nath is an astrophysicist at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. He received his PhD in astronomy from the University of Maryland, USA, and he does research on cosmology and the evolution of galaxies. He has written several popular science articles - and books.

CONTENTS
Foreword .......................................................................... vii
1. Astronomy before telescopes .......................................... 1
2. The invention of telescope ............................................ 13
3. Early telescopes (17th century) ..................................... 20
4. Beyond the solar system: 18th century telescopes ..........34
5. The birth of astrophysics: 19th century .......................... 45
6. Telescopes at the end of 19th century ........................... 62
7. Early 20th century telescopes ........................................69
8. Modern (and future) telescopes .................................... 78
9. Radio telescopes : I ...................................................... 93
10. Radio telescopes : II .................................................. 103
11. Spaceborne telescopes — I ....................................... 115
12. Spaceborne telescopes —II ....................................... 129
13. Cosmic ray & gravity wave telescopes: modern astronomy ....................... 144
Index ............................................................................... 159