- 1800 BC – Babylonian star catalog
- 1700 BC – Stonehenge
- 432 BC – Athens observatory on Lycabettus Hill used by Meton and
Phaeinus - 350s BC – Eudoxus of Cnidos observatory, school at Cyzicus
- 350 BC – Shin Shen’s star catalog has almost 800 entries
- 330 BC – Aristotle On the Heavens [De Caelo]
- 200 BC – Astrolabe used by Greeks
- 150 BC – Rhodes observatory
- 129 BC – Hipparchus’ star catalog
- 105 BC – Alexandria observatory and College of Technology under Heron
- 52 BC – Shou-chang uses armillary ring
- 141 – Claudius Ptolemy Megale Mathematike Syntaxis [or Almagest]
- 499 – Aryabhata Aryabhatiya
- 646 – Chomsongdae observatory near Kyongju, South Korea
- 790 – Gundishapur observations by al-Nihawandi
- 813 – Baghdad School of Astronomy
- 828 – al-Shammasiyya observatory of Abi Mansur near Baghdad
- 831-2 – Mount Qasiyun observatory near Damascus
- 840 – al-Farghani Compendium of the Science of the Stars
- 887 – Raqqa observatory of al-Battani in Syria
- 963 – al-Sufi’s star catalog Book of the Fixed Stars
- 988 – Baghdad observatory of al-Quhi and al-Buzjani
- ca. 900 – Hanlin Academy observatory in Northern China
- 994 – Ray observatory of al-Khujandi near Tehran, Iran
- 1000 – Mokattam observatory, Egypt for al-Hakim II
- 1023 – Hamadan observatory
- ca. 1030 – Treasury of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham of Egypt [Alhazen]
- 1074-92 – Malikshah observatory at Isfahan used by al-Khayyam
- 1119-25 – Cairo al-Bataihi observatory for al-Afdal
- 1252-72 – Alphonsine tables recorded
- 1259 – Maragha Observatory and library of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi by Mangu
under Khan Hulagu - ca. 1270 – Terrace for Managing Heaven 26 observatory network of Guo
Shoujing under Khubilai Khan - 1417 – Speculum Planetarum by Simones de Selandia
- 1420 – Samarkand observatory of Ulugh Beg
- 1467-71 – Observatory at Oradea Hungary for King Corvinus
- 1472 – Nuremberg observatory
- 1560 – Kassel observatory under Hessian Landgrave Wilhelm IV
- 1575-80 – Istanbul observatory of al-Din under Murad III
- 1580 – Royal Danish Astronomical Observatory at Hveen (Uraniborg) for
Tycho Brahe - 1600 – Prague observatory
- 1603 – Johann Bayer’s Uranometria
- 1608 – Hans Lippershey tries to patent an optical refracting telescope
- 1609 – Galileo Galilei builds his first optical refracting telescope
- 1632 – Leiden University observatory
- 1641 – William Gascoigne invents telescope cross hairs
- 1661 – James Gregory proposes an optical reflecting telescope
- 1667 – Paris observatoire
- 1668 – Isaac Newton constructs the first optical reflecting telescope
- 1675 – Royal Greenwich Observatory of England
- 1705 – Berlin observatory
- 1725 – St. Petersburg observatory at Royal Academy
- 1733 – Chester Moor Hall invents the achromatic lens refracting
telescope - 1740 – Indian observatories of Jai Singh at Dehli, Jaipur, Madras
- 1758 – John Dolland reinvents the achromatic lens
- 1789 – William Herschel finishes a 49-inch optical reflecting
telescope—located in Slough, England - 1761 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle 62 observing station network for
observing transit of Venus (& Mercury) - 1769 – Short reflectors used at 63 station network for transit of Venus
- 1840 – J.W. Draper invents astronomical photography and photographs the
Moon - 1845 – Lord Rosse finishes the Birr Castle 72-inch optical reflecting
telescope—located in Parsonstown, Ireland - 1871 – German Astronomical Association organized network of 13 (later
16) observatories for stellar proper motion studies - 1872 – Henry Draper invents astronomical spectral photography and
photographs the spectrum of Vega - 1887 – Paris conference institutes Carte du Ciel project to map entire
sky to 14th magnitude photographically - 1889 – Astronomical Society of the Pacific founded
- 1890 – Albert Michelson proposes the stellar interferometer
- 1892 – George Hale finishes a spectroheliograph—allows the Sun to be
photographed in the light of one element only - 1897 – Alvan Clark finishes the Yerkes 40-inch optical refracting
telescope—located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin - 1917 – Mount Wilson 100-inch optical reflecting telescope begins
operation—located in Mount Wilson, California - 1919 – International Astronomical Union (IAU) founded
- 1930 – Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot invents the coronagraph
- 1930 – Karl Jansky builds a 30-meter long rotating aerial radio
telescope - 1933 – Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot invents the Lyot filter
- 1934 – Bernhard Schmidt finishes the first 14-inch Schmidt optical
reflecting telescope - 1936 – Palomar 18-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins
operation—located in Palomar, California - 1937 – Grote Reber builds a 31-foot radio telescope
- 1947 – Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 218-foot
non-steerable radio telescope - 1949 – Palomar 48-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins
operation—located in Palomar, California - 1949 – Palomar 200-inch optical reflecting telescope begins regular
operation—located in Palomar, California - 1957 – Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 250-foot
steerable radio telescope - 1957 – Peter Scheuer publishes his PhD method for obtaining source
counts of spatially unresolved sources - 1960 – Martin Ryle tests Earth rotation aperature synthesis
- 1960 – Owens Valley 27-meter radio telescopes begin operation—located
in Big Pine, California - 1962 – European Southern Observatory (ESO) founded
- 1963 – Arecibo 300-meter radio telescope begins operation—located in
Arecibo, Puerto Rico - 1964 – Ryle 1-mile radio interferometer begins operation—located in
Cambridge, England - 1965 – Owens Valley 40-meter radio telescope begins operation—located
in Big Pine, California - 1967 – First VLBI images—183 km baseline
- 1969 – Observations start at Big Bear Solar Observatory—located in
Big Bear, California - 1970 – Cerro Tololo 158-inch optical reflecting telescope begins
operation—located in Cerro Tololo, Chile - 1970 – Kitt Peak National Observatory 158-inch optical reflecting
telescope begins operation—located near Tucson, Arizona - 1974 – Anglo-Australian 153-inch optical reflecting telescope begins
operation—located in Siding Springs, Australia - 1975 – Gerald Smith, Frederick Landauer, and James Janesick use a CCD
to observe Uranus—first astronomical CCD observation - 1978 – Multiple Mirror 176-inch equivalent optical/infrared reflecting
telescope begins operation—located in Amado, Arizona - 1979 – UKIRT 150-inch infrared reflecting telescope begins
operation—located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii - 1979 – Canada-France-Hawaii 140-inch optical reflecting telescope
begins operation—located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii - 1980 – Completion of construction of the VLA—located in Socorro, New
Mexico - 1993 – Keck 10-meter optical/infrared reflecting telescope begins
operation—located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii - 1997 – The Japanese Halca satellite begins operations, producing first
VLBI observations from space. — 25000 km maximum baseline - 1998 – First light at VLT1, the 8.2 m ESO telescope.
- 2001 – First light at VLTI. Operations in the interferometry mode of
VLT start at ESO — 103 m baseline
Timeline of Telescopes, Observatories, and Observing Technology
