Eyes on the Skies

1. New views of the skies
- Invention of the telescope by Zacharias Jansen and Hans Lipperhey
- First use of the telescope by Galileo Galilei
- First new discoveries: lunar craters, planetary satellites, sunspots, etc.
- Improvement of the telescope and further discoveries (Huygens, Hevelius, etc.)
- William Herschel's big, home-made telescopes, and his discoveries (Uranus, nebulae)
- Lord Rosse's Leviathan telescope and the discovery of spiral nebula

2. Bigger is better
- The Yerkes telescope as the largest refractor in the world
- The story of George Ellery Hale; constructing of the telescopes at Mount Wilson
- The discovery of the true nature of galaxies and the expansion of the Universe
- The life cycles of stars
- The 5-meter Hale telescope as the grand old lady of observational astronomy
- Reaching the limit: the "failure" of the Soviet 6-meter telescope

3. Computers to the rescue
- Telescope mounts and enclosures: alt-azimuth vs. equatorial
- Thin mirrors, rotating ovens and active optics
- Segmented mirrors; the twin Keck telescopes
- Building the Very Large Telescope
- Adaptive optics and interferometry
- New results from the current giants

4. From Silver to Silicon
- The early detectors: Eye and pencil
- The silver emulsion
- The silicon revolution: Photo multipliers, CCDs and CMOSes
- Digital image processing

5. Seeing the invisible
- Our limited ability to see the "real" Universe with our eyes
- Radio astronomy; big radio observatories like the Very Large Array
- The discovery of radio galaxies, pulsars, and the cosmic microwave background
- Unravelling the formation of galaxies, stars and planets: (sub-)millimetre astronomy (e.g. ALMA)
- What infrared observations tell us about dusty galaxies and the early evolution of the Universe
- High-energy astronomy: gamma ray, cosmic ray and neutrino telescopes
- Gravitational wave detectors and the search for the quivers of spacetime

6. Beyond Earth
- Astronomy's

Lars Lindberg Christensen is press officer of the International Astronomical Union, as well as IAU EC International Year of Astronomy 2009 Working Group Secretary. An astronomer by profession, he is a science communication specialist heading the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre group, responsible for public outreach and education for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in Europe.Robert (Bob) Fosbury is an astronomer working for the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of ESA's collaboration with NASA on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) project at ST-ECF. Bob also served on NASA's Ad Hoc Science Working Group and ESA's Study Science Team as they developed the instrument concepts for the James Webb Space Telescope, the next generation space observatory. Bob and Lars wrote the highly successful "Hubble - 15 years of discovery".Robert Hurt is professional artist, specialized on art in astronomy.

"It's very much a browsing book and I guarantee you it won't matter what page you first land on-you'll find some beautiful graphics and a wealth of accurate and interesting information... A feast of a book-the photographs are so sharp you would want to wear gloves reading it." ( Astronomy & Space , September 2009) " Eyes on the Skies , through words and a wealth of stunning photographs and illustrations ... tells the fascinating story of the telescope from its invention in the early 1600s to the computer-controlled telescopes of the modern day." ( Spaceflight , May 2009) "Anyone wanting a refresher course on telescope history will find Eyes on the Skies an illuminating guide... Beautifully illustrated." ( Physics World , March 2009) "The story starts with the observations of the moon by Galileo in 1609... This milestone is a key feature of this marvellous book... Recommended as a valuable up to date summary of achievements in 400 years and also an insight into future plans to extend our survey of the heavens." ( The Astronomer , February 2009) " Eyes On The Skies tells the history of the telescope from the prototypes of the early 1600s to the computer-controlled machines of today." ( Daily Express , January 2009)