Astronomical Instrument

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Astronomical instruments are the tools used to observe objects and phenomena that occur in space. These can include both terrestrial and satellite-borne telescopes. High precision optical components such as mirrors and lenses at all wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum are crucial to the development of these devices. — Nature

List of Astronomical Instruments (Wikipedia)

Observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant (for measuring the distance between stars) or Stonehenge (which has some alignments on astronomical phenomena). Astronomical observatories are divided into four categories: space-based, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based. — Wikipedia

Astronomical Observatory (Encyclopædia Britannica)

List of Astronomical Observatories (Wikipedia)

Telescope is an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, or various devices used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. — Wikipedia

Telescope (Encyclopædia Britannica)
Telescope (COSMOS: The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy)

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Inspiration

Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA’s Great Observatories. — Wikipedia

Note: This is a 360° Video — press and hold to explore it!

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Hubble Skymap puts the night sky at your fingertips any time of day. Roam the Milky Way to find a selection of galaxies, stars, and nebulae as seen by Hubble. To explore the skymap, scroll, double click, or pinch/swipe to zoom in and out. Roll over an icon to see the object, click to zero in, and click again for a detailed view and a description. Drag the map to navigate. — Hubble Skymap (NASA Science)

Hubble Skymap (NASA Science)

NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel)
Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website)

Hubble Space Telescope (NASA, Website)
Hubble Space Telescope (NASA, YouTube Channel)

Hubble Images 4K (Astrum, YouTube Playlist)

James Webb Space Telescope is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. Its high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This enables investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets. The Webb was launched on 25 December 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. In January 2022 it arrived at its destination, a solar orbit near the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth. The telescope’s first image was released to the public on 11 July 2022. — Wikipedia

NASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA (Official Website)

James Webb Space Telescope (NASA Science)

James Webb (Astrum, YouTube Playlist)

AAS WorldWide Telescope is a tool for showcasing astronomical data and knowledge brought to you by the American Astronomical Society. Users are able to navigate the sky by panning and zooming, or explore the 3D universe, viewing both visual imagery and scientific data (academic papers, etc.) about that area and the objects in it. Data is curated from hundreds of different sources, and it enables the visualization and sharing of scientific data and stories from major telescopes, observatories, and institutions among students and researchers.

AAS WorldWide Telescope (YouTube Channel)
AAS WorldWide Telescope (Official Website)

AAS WorldWide Telescope (Web Client)
Learn About WorldWide Telescope (YouTube Playlist)
WorldWide Telescope (Wikipedia)

Talks about Telescopes (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)
Articles about Telescopes (Big Think)

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Innovation

Science

Observational astronomy is a division of astronomy that is concerned with recording data about the observable universe, in contrast with theoretical astronomy, which is mainly concerned with calculating the measurable implications of physical models. It is the practice and study of observing celestial objects with the use of telescopes and other astronomical instruments. — Wikipedia

Sensing the Universe (NASA Science)
Telescopes 101 (NASA Science)
Observatories (NASA Science)

Observational Astronomy (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)
Instrumentation (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy, Wolfram Research)

Observatories & Telescopes (Wolfram Alpha)
Telescope (Wolfram Alpha)

Technology

Australian Astronomical Optics Macquarie (YouTube Channel)
Australian Astronomical Optics Macquarie (Official Website)

Methods of Observational Astronomy (Introduction to Astronomy, Wolfgang H. Berger, UC San Diego)
The Techniques of Astronomy (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Giant Magellan Telescope (GMTO Corporation)
Giant Magellan Telescope (Wikipedia)

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT International Observatory)
Thirty Meter Telescope (Wikipedia)

European Extremely Large Telescope (European Southern Observatory)
Extremely Large Telescope (Wikipedia)

Astronomical Instruments, Category (Wikipedia)
Astronomical Instruments, List (Wikipedia)

List of Astronomical Observatories (Wikipedia)

List of Astronomical Observatories and Telescopes (Encyclopædia Britannica)

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Preservation

History

The history of the telescope can be traced to before the invention of the earliest known telescope, which appeared in 1608 in the Netherlands, when a patent was submitted by Hans Lippershey, an eyeglass maker. Although Lippershey did not receive his patent, news of the invention soon spread across Europe. The design of these early refracting telescopes consisted of a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece. Galileo improved on this design the following year and applied it to astronomy. In 1611, Johannes Kepler described how a far more useful telescope could be made with a convex objective lens and a convex eyepiece lens. By 1655, astronomers such as Christiaan Huygens were building powerful but unwieldy Keplerian telescopes with compound eyepieces. — Wikipedia

Galileo and the Telescope (Steve Hurley, The Science Geek)

Newton’s Telescope and Hubble (Objectivity 16, YouTube Video)
Big Old Lenses (Objectivity 51, YouTube Video)
Transit Telescope (Objectivity 69, YouTube Video)
The Telescope Diaries (Objectivity 135, YouTube Video)
Tycho and his Instruments (Objectivity 202, YouTube Video)
The Underground Telescope (Objectivity 232, YouTube Video)

Library

DDC: 522 Astronomical Instruments (Library Thing)
Subject: Astronomical Instruments (Library Thing)

DDC: 522.1 Observatories (Library Thing)
Subject: Observatories (Library Thing)

DDC: 522.2 Telescopes (Library Thing)
Subject: Telescopes (Library Thing)

Subject: Astronomical Instruments (Open Library)
Subject: Observatories (Open Library)
Subject: Telescopes (Open Library)

LCC: QB 63 Astronomical Instruments (UPenn Online Books)

LCC: QB 63 Astronomical Instruments (Library of Congress)
Subject: Astronomical Instruments (Library of Congress)
Subject: Observatories (Library of Congress)
Subject: Telescopes (Library of Congress)

Subject: Astronomical Instruments (WorldCat)
Subject: Observatories (WorldCat)
Subject: Telescopes (WorldCat)

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Participation

World Wide Telescope (NumFOCUS)

Education

Telescopes (Cosmos4Kids)

Telescopes (Crash Course Astronomy)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

More Space Telescope News from Science Daily …

A mysterious cosmic hum may come from...
on August 27, 2026 at 10:26 am
Today’s mysterious gravitational-wave background may preserve clues about how the Universe’s first supermassive black holes formed. Descendants of hypothetical Dark Stars could be responsible for a major portion of the signal, offering a surprising new way to investigate cosmic dawn and dark matter.
Scientists may have finally caught “empty”...
on August 27, 2026 at 3:52 am
A magnetar with an astonishingly powerful magnetic field may have revealed a quantum effect predicted by Werner Heisenberg nearly 90 years ago. Its light shows signs that supposedly empty space is altering how the light travels, potentially providing the first evidence of vacuum birefringence.
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is ready to hunt...
on August 26, 2026 at 10:29 am
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is now enclosed inside its Falcon Heavy fairing and nearly ready for launch. Its mission could uncover thousands of exoplanets while helping scientists investigate dark matter, dark energy, and the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Newton’s 300-year-old law just passed its...
on August 25, 2026 at 1:49 am
A massive test of gravity across the cosmos found that it behaves almost exactly as Newton and Einstein predicted, even across galaxy clusters hundreds of millions of light-years apart. The result weakens some modified-gravity explanations and strengthens the case that dark matter is behind the universe’s mysterious missing mass.
A ghostly ribbon of stars reveals hidden dark...
on August 24, 2026 at 12:19 pm
A faint ribbon of stars around a distant galaxy has become the first globular cluster stellar stream ever identified beyond the Milky Way. Because the stars trace the galaxy’s gravity, researchers used the stream to estimate how much invisible dark matter surrounds it and how that matter is distributed. The breakthrough offers astronomers a promising new way to investigate one of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

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Related

Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.

Knowledge Realm

Physical

“Fundamentals”
Law (Constant) Relativity
Force Gravity, Electromagnetism (Light, Color)
Matter (Microscope) Molecule, Atom (Periodic Table), Particle

“Space”
Universe (Astronomical Instrument)
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon

Our Neighborhood
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid

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Notes

1. The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.