Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004pasp..116...77r&link_type=abstract
The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 116, Issue 815, pp. 77-83.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Telescopes, History And Philosophy Of Astronomy, Sociology Of Astronomy
Scientific paper
This paper analyzes a compilation of aperture diameters D and commissioning dates t for 177 optical telescopes, including those that have been among the largest of their time. We offer the following findings, and draw the following inferences, about aperture growth D(t) over four centuries:
1. From the days of Galileo to the present, telescope diameters have steadily grown, with a doubling time t2× of nearly 50 yr.
2. Beginning in 1730, major refractors' apertures followed a strictly exponential curve of growth, with t2×=45 yr, before stopping with the Yerkes 40 inch (1.02 m) in 1897.
3. Over the last 300 yr, the very largest ``frontier'' reflectors have defined a sharp and distinct upper boundary to the D(t) distribution, with t2×=48 yr and D1900=2.3 m. This exponential growth is taken to have been imposed strictly by the rate at which telescope technology has progressed.
4. Data for second-tier ``large'' reflectors yield D1900=1.0 m and t2×=47 yr until 1950 and suggest an exponential decrease of the doubling time afterwards, e-folding in ~70 yr and leading to t2×=20 yr in 2000. This may be the result of a gradual relief, through increased collaboration, of constraints that prevented the limits of technology from being reached.
5. The curves of growth for large and for frontier reflectors cross in ~2010. Whether the aperture growth in the 21st century is limited by demographics-collaborations-or by technology remains to be seen.
6. During the 20th century, commissioning of large telescopes tended to occur in bursts at ~35 yr intervals.
7. Giant telescopes with serious shortcomings were not uncommon before 1850. These typically had twice the aperture of their more productive contemporaries.
8. The completion of the current burst of ambitiously large 20-100 m telescope projects with the scheduled launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in the 2010s would constitute a dramatic break with 4 centuries of historical evolution.
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