Customer Reviews

400 Years of the Telescope

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Everything about this film is top notch, except at 60 minutes, I was left wanting more. Every one of the 60 minutes in the film is a gem, but it's so well done that you wish it could have been a 90 or 120 minute piece.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a fine narrator, and his enthusiasm for the topic is present without sneaking through. Dr. Tyson loves astronomy, and sometimes his excitement can overwhelm. Here, he is right on the mark.

If you have even the most remote interest in astronomy or science, you'll enjoy this movie. You may also find yourself looking at telescope prices so that you can have the same experience as Galileo. (Quick bit of advice: if you do shop for telescopes, ignore claims of "power." What you really want is light-gathering ability, or the size of the lens. The bigger the scope, the more you'll get to see.)

This DVD is very well made. It is obviously targeted at a general audience. But the title is misleading. When I made the purchase on Amazon I expected to get a complete history of the telescope. To me that is what "400 Years of the Telescope" meant. What we get instead is a bit of the beginnings of the telescope, like when Newton invented the reflector for example; then we switch quickly to modern instruments like the Hale Telescope of the Palomar Observatory. So overall it does cover 400 years, but there is very little material between the time of the invention of the telescope and today's instruments. On the other hand there is extensive coverage of various grand projects of future telescope building. In the process we get a chronological history of various key astronomical discoveries.

So the way I see it, the ultimate goal of this documentary was more to give us a brief history of astronomy than a history of the telescope itself. In the end it was because of the misleading title that I gave it only three stars. Otherwise it would deserve an additional one based on the quality of the presentation alone.

It's too bad, there would have been so much to say about the pioneers of telescope building, like Herschel, Fraunhofer, Huygens, Cassegrain, etc... So if you are interested in the history of the telescope, like I am, you can always read Fred Watson or Henry C. King.

This program needed to be a mini-series rather than a one hour program. There were too many historic and scientific facts crammed into too little time. As a result much of the excitement and passion of astronomy was left out. The bigger questions, such as "How did the Universe Begin?", "How will it end", and "Is there life in other places in the Universe" were quickly skimmed over or not discussed at all.

If I wanted to inspire someone's interest in science and the Universe I think the PBS series "The Astronomers" would be a much better choice in spite of it being rather dated.

This presentation is a synopsis of telescopes as interments from concept to concept. It cannot possibly cover everything and does not need to. But there is enough verbal information and pictures to hold your attention for the hour and possibly show you something you did not know. Of course it is now dated but if you are still remembering the physics of you school days, you are in for some new thoughts.

Bottom line is that you will not be disappointed and better still intrigued with 400 years of the telescope. And find yourself asking does dark matter?

This offers something for multiple audiences. Of course, the chemistry- and physics-loving crowd will enjoy this. Howerver, we science haters can get something out of this too. The work speaks about how when new telescopes take images of outer space, they put them on the internet so that teens and artists can use them or be inspired by it. The work said that we can say destructive meteors 30 years before they reach the Earth, the implication being that we'll have the technology to destroy them. The work said that there are 300 Earth-like planets found, so maybe this will inspire or intrigue "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" fans.

For people who hate history, this only briefly deals with that topic. It speaks of how great minds introduced the heliocentric model in contrast to the then-accepted geocentric one. For the visually-stimulated, watching the CGI graphics is pleasurable on its own terms. For history haters, this work does not dwell on the past. It presents space as a wild frontier of which we do not know much. For those interested in the future or pushing the envelope, that message will keep you watching.

I recall reading in middle school history classes that neither maps nor globes do justice to the physical shape and look of Earth. This work points on how older telescopes made blurry images or had to keep getting longer. This works speaks of the inventors who corrected these problems. The work concludes with telescopes that will be as big as football fields that will record images that humans have never seen.

Remember when Bart Simpson looked into a telescope and said, "Wow! The universe sure is boring." It's comical that "wow!" and "boring" are being used in the same sentence. Still, this documentary tries to interest those who care about space and those who don't give a toot. Even its discussion of how color-various photographs tells us more than black-and-white ones will keeps those fascinated how like rainbow-like images.

I wish the work had more diverse interviewees. Still, the work is much stronger and more interesting than the title would suggest.