Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens

by Richard Panek

An entertaining, concise look at the impact of the advent of the telescope on the way humans view the universe and their place in it focuses on the visionaries, beginning with Galileo, who created and perfected it. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction, Astronomy

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Richard Panek, a Guggenheim Fellow in science writing, is the author of The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, which won the American Institute of Physics communication award in 2012, and the co-author with Temple Grandin of The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Soumaia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book about the telescope and how he changed our world,opened our eyes and minds to the heavens ,,
The author took us through the journey of telescope and astronomy from the very beginning :from the first time Galileo pointed a telescope and saw the moon ,from the questions,debates and doubts to the theories,answers and certainties ... ending withe discovering & knowing the universe as we know it today ,
A story of science ,dreams and ambitions through the history of mankind to know,explore & change the universe.

[Mrudula Govindaraju · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a slim, but brilliant piece of writing, about the evolution of the telescope. It's packed with interesting facts and anecdotes. I loved it.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2. Rightly gave a good deal of time to Galileo and the titanic shift that he brought about in how people think of their place in the world. Interesting how a modern scientific method was slowly wandered toward over a couple centuries. I learned about many people who revolutionized astronomy that I had never heard of before, like William Herschel.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prosaic, factual, and often philosophical retelling of the telescope’s evolution. Where link Galileo, Newton, Hershel, Hubble, Jansky, etc. within the greater framework of astrophysics. The art of how and why we see the universe is a tricky and subtle story of evolution and individuality, themes “Seeing and Believing” tackles well. You will encounter some confusing read points. Panek often struggles with heavy comma abusage here, and quite a bit of extended sentence construction as well. But when the writing is on point, particularly the first and fifth chapters, it’s an inspiring saga. Recommended to a astronomy/philosophy audience.

[Russ Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing and Believing is about how the telescope changed astronomy not once, but many times: Each new technical development in telescopes led to a new vision of how the Universe is put together.

I liked the way Panek packages his tale, each new discovery framed around a technical development.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts with a preface discussing the Hubble Deep Field image. Then when the book really starts, it goes back to Ancient Greece and people like Aristotle, before turning to Galileo and what he saw through his telescope, then to people such as Huygens, Cassini, Brahe, Hevelius, William Herschel, Hale, Rosse, Huggins, and many others, and a brief mention of Hubble. Then the last chapter was an attempt to briefly sum up all developments since around 1930, with Jansky, studying the universe in different wavelengths with ground and space-based telescopes, going briefly into the big bang theory and the cosmic microwave background, the use of CCDs, and a bit of a summary of how far we have come since Galileo.

Up until the last chapter the book gave a thorough and personal account of the people and the science that was done. It was pleasant to read. I was disappointed that the book didn’t go more into recent developments, that is, up until the book was published in 1998. I would have loved a similar treatment to the last hundred years that the book gave to the first centuries it covered.

Overall an OK book about the historical developments and use of the telescope to understand more about the universe.

[Stephen Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book covering the history of the telescope and how it was instrumental in changing our perception of the universe. There's a really nice quote towards the end of the book from leading 20th century astronomer Edwin Hubble, who said "The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons" and this sums up the story perfectly.

Panek has chosen to focus on the impact of the telescope rather than the technical details and this approach has resulted in a couple of factual errors, such as where he describes a CCD as a device that stores information digitally (it doesn't). Also, the book does not contain any illustrations, which seems an odd omission for such a visual topic. These minor criticisms aside, I found the book to be an absorbing read and the ideal companion to Dava Sobel's 'Galileo's Daughter'.

[Kevin Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a Gem! If you ever wanted to have a good explanation on how science builds on the past to learn and set up more for the future, this book is perfect. I really enjoyed the way the Author showed how this happened and because of that, someone said "well how about this?" and boom it happened. Everyone has 20/20 hind sight, so we can see the steps and think, yep that's the way, but the people who helped develop Astronomy to what it is today did not. The book showed me how they developed (something I like to call) 20/20 foresight. Thus advancing Astronomy one step at a time. A great book. I highly recommend.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

For one who appreciates astronomy, who would like to discover information in condensed details. It's "the cosmological odyssey" of man and the telescope. The progression of its personalities of inventors, some of who were Galileo-who recanted, Hershel-who gave up his career as musician, and Hale-who pushed himself beyond his anxiety limit to prove to the world the signicance of his discovery, was an excellent read! I connected disparate scientific facts for the first time, such as lines and colors and various widths indicating a planets chemical make-up. I learned how such an important device can have so many problems creatively solved: early scopes crafted in unbelievable ways, with huge and small advances over several centuries. The incredible maintenances required furthered the inovations. Sheer human ambition is awesome given the dedication and persistance of the inventors in gaining acceptance of new "heavenly" scientific knowledge.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slim tome, easy to read, and chock full of lots of interesting facts about the invention of the telescope, the men who came to use it to stare at the heavens, and how their discoveries changed the way we look at the world and the universe.

The one down side to this book is that, if you're anything like me, it will end up making you feel lazy. How can my life ever compare to that of, for example William Herschel's? Herschel was a music tutor who gazed at the stars for hobby. He became obsessed with astronomy, however. When he couldn't find a telescope big enough to suit his needs, he started building his own. When he couldn't find a factory to make the large-sized mirror he needed, he turned his home into a foundry. Eventually, he discovered a planet.

Really, truly amazing stuff. I wonder if there are very many of these "self-made men" left in the world and what topic could motivate me enough to join their ranks?

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written history of the telescope. As it turns out, Galileo was not the original inventor of the telescope, he was just the first to point it at the sky (namely the Moon on an August night of 1609) and record his observations. It was the turning point for science; the telescope was the first extension of the human senses, and more importantly, the information and data gathered by the machine/tool gained ascendancy over information gathered through the human senses.

[Benedict Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I watched and rewatched the series Cosmos as a kid... but I felt this book simply went over ground that many books, documentaries, etc. have already done better.
But perhaps I would have a different attitude if I was coming to this topic afresh.

[Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant little book about the telescope and how we learned (and are still learning) to see the universe; and to believe what we are seeing.

[Jeff Parry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little book on the history and development of the telescope and the people who used and improved them to discover the wonders of the universe beyond the naked eye.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, short recap on the development and progression through history of the leading scientists involved in stellar observations.