Example Process Paper
Intermediate Group

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The Invention of the Telescope
and What It Discovered

Jade Summers
Michele Cogliati

Demonstration Category

Intermediate Group Poster

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Process Paper

Can you believe that an accidental invention by a little boy, changed the way we look at the universe?

We have both always enjoyed looking at the night sky. We saw the eclipse of the moon and the comet, Hale Bopp; it was exciting, so we decided to study the invention of the telescope for History Day.

We went to the and the HSU and county libraries and got books and videos from the Office of Education. We wrote letters of inquiry to the Smithsonian, NASA and John Glenn, the Smithsonian and NASA wrote back.

The books gave us a lot of information. Space Telescope had the picture of our galaxy, which gave us the idea to use it on our poster. We used toothbrushes to spatter paint for the stars. An encyclopedia had the pictures we looked at for our planets. Even though Galileo didn't invent the telescope, he improved it greatly and was the first to look at the stars with it. He discovered that the Milky Way was many stars.

Bob O'Connell, the astronomy teacher at CR, invited us to come with his class to their observatory at Kneeland. It was so cool. We got to look through the telescopes they brought and the reflecting telescope and reflecting-refracting telescope, which are permanently installed there. We saw Saturn and one of its moons, Jupiter and the four moons that Galileo saw and the North Star. Everyone starts by focusing on the North Star to orient the guiding system, which was invented by Joseph von Fraurhofer, so the telescope will stay where it is focused. Bob gave us two books on stars. Dr. Charles Parke was a physics professor who was very helpful and had many interesting stories. The movement of Mercury across the face of the sun is a rare sight but he got to see it, just like Kepler did. He lent us a book that had more information than any other book we found. It helped fill in a lot of gaps in our time-line. Dr. Parke had made two telescopes.

Michele experimented with making a telescope. She took some of her mother's old lenses and looked through them different ways. No matter how she tried, everything got further away. You can't use just any kind of lenses, one has to be convex and the other, concave. This experiment helped us come to a conclusion. Some books we read said Jan Lippershey accidentally discovered the telescope while making a pair of spectacles, other books said it was his son who was playing with some old lenses. We decided it was his son because we don't think Jan Lippershey would be making a pair of spectacles with opposite kinds of lenses.

The telescope has changed our world. Before the telescope was invented, people thought the earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. Because of the invention of the telescope, we have learned a lot about ourselves and outer-space. We are still learning. Maybe someday people will live in outer-space.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES

BOOKS

Lear, John. Kepler's Dream with the full text and notes of Sompium Sive Astronomia Lunaris by Joannis Kepler. Translated by Kirkwood Patricia Freuh. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965.

In 1609 Kepler published two of his three discoveries about the orbits of the planets. Kepler and Galileo wrote to each other. Kepler suggested that Galileo study Jupiter and he would study the moon for those in the future who would attempt interplanetary space travel. Kepler was Lutheran, and Galileo was Catholic. Discovering that the planets' revolutions were elliptical was important. Kepler wrote a book called "Dream." It was about his discoveries about the moon. He worked on it from 1620 to 1630. His book called "Dream" didn't make that much sense; like a dream. Kepler wrote his book that way because he wanted the church to think it was about a dream, but really he wanted the scientific people to understand it.

Ride, Sally. In Space and Back. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books, 1986.

In this book it explains what it feels like to be in space. The person that wrote the book was one of the people that were on the Space Shuttle. No, it is not scary when you are on the shuttle, but getting on the shuttle is scary. No, it is not cold; in fact, most of the time they wear short sleeves. And no, you don't have trouble sleeping because space there is not any up or down.

SECONDARY SOURCES

BOOKS

King, Henry C. The History Of The Telescope. Cambridge Massachusetts: Sky Publishing 1955.

In this book saw a picture of Tycho Brahe's observatory, Uraniborg. It looked like a castle. We got a lot of information for our time line and the picture of William Herchel's telescope. We learned that Schmidt telescopes are very famous. Schmidt liked to experiment a lot when he was little and blew off his right hand. We learned what a camera telescope looks like. The mirrors for very large telescopes have a honey-combed back and the machine that polishes them takes three people to sit on it

Author Unknown. Exploring The Universe. Hong Kong: Schoolhouse Press, 1988.

If we did not have telescopes, then we could not see the craters on the moon. The largest telescope in the world is in Russia. The telescope weighs seventy-seven tons.

Author Unknown. The Visual Dictionary of the Universe. London: Dorling Kindersley, 1993.

There are three main types of telescopes; the reflector, the refractor, and the radio telescope. The reflector uses a mirror to collect light, a refractor uses lenses to collect light, and the radio telescope collects radio waves. In 1950 the radio telescope was invented. In 1971 the first space telescope was sent into space.

Asimov, Isaac. Galaxies. New York: Follett Publishing Company, 1968.

In 1608, a tube with lenses, or curved pieces of glass, was pointed at the sky. The tube with lenses is the telescope. In the 1800's, scientists found how to break up the light from stars into many colors with a spectroscope.

Barrett, Night Sky. London: Franklin Watts Inc., 1985.

On a clear night you can see about 3,000 stars with your naked eye. With a telescope you can see thousands more. Venus is the second brightest object in our sky. Stars move very slowly across the night sky.

Berry, Richard. Discover the Stars. New York: Harmony Books, 1987.

In this book there are a bunch of maps of the stars and a lot of information about the constellations arid what they are, like Leo the Lion, Orion tile Hunter, Hercules, and Pegasus. This book has a lot of information on the telescope and how it works.

Branley, Franklyn M. Space Telescope. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1985.

This book is about a telescope called Space Telescope. Space Telescope was one of the first telescopes sent out into space. The book told me how space telescopes work and what they look like on the inside. The book told me how people can work oil a space telescope in space. Quasars look like stars but give off too much energy. Pulsars, or neutron stars, give off radio waves. They look like blown-up stars. Our sun has been burning for over five billion years, and has enough energy to burn for another five billion years. The idea for my poster of tile Milky Way came from this book. In this galaxy there are around 200 billion stars.

Brown, Peter Lancaster. The World of Science Astronomy. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984.

Long ago, Greeks called astronomy tile "Queen of Sciences." Claudius Ptolemy was the first person to explain how everything moved around the earth. Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek. Nicolaus Copernicus was the first person to believe that the earth and moon moved around the sun. Galileo discovered 5 planets. Galileo also discovered that the Milky Way was a bunch of stars.

Gallant, Roy. The Macmillan Book of Astronomy. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co. 1986.

The energy doesn't come from fire. It comes from fusion. When hydrogen combines to form helium lots of energy is given off. In 1612 Galileo was the first to study sunspots through a telescope and lie saw that the sun spins around every 27 days. Galileo became blind because he looked into the sun. Jupiter has 17 moons. The main moons are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Ganymede is closest and Callisto is furthest. Galileo thought Saturn looked like it had ears. Very strong telescopes today shows its' rings and very colorful atmosphere. It has at least 22 moons. Mimos, Encelablus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan and Hyperion are the biggest. Uranus has 15 moons. Neptune may only have 2 moons, Triton and Nereid. Pluto has a moon named Charon. Mercury doesn't have a moon. Venus doesn't either. Earth has one. Mars has 2 moons discovered in 1877 and named Phobos (fear) and Demos (terror.)

Gallant, Roy A. Once Around the Galaxy. London: Franklin Watts, 1983.

In this book it showed me pictures of our galaxy arid other far away galaxies. Galaxies are made out of big clusters of stars.

Gibbons, Gail. Stargazers. New York: Holiday House, 1992.

Some stargazers are called astronomers. The cooler stars are red. The warmer stars are yellow, arid the hotter stars are bluish white. Isaac Newton built the first reflecting telescope.

Harris, Susan. Space. New York, London: Franklin Watts, 1979.

Outer space is outside the earth's atmosphere. Astronauts have to take their own atmosphere with them; that's why they wear space suits. Everything is moving through space, even the sun and the Milky Way. The moon spins as it circles the earth, but at a speed that always keeps the same side facing the earth. People who study the sky and stars are called astronomers. Gravity is the strongest force in space. Spacecraft have to go over 17,400 miles an hour to get past gravity's pull.

Howard, N. E. Standard Handbook for Telescope Making. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1959.

In this book I learned that some time during the year 1608 Jan Lippershey's kids were playing with some of his less valuable spectacle lenses while Jan was making spectacles. His kids came running in arid told him that they put two of his lenses in front of each other and everything got bigger. He took a round tube, put the lenses inside, and looked through it, and everything got a lot bigger!

Kerrod, Robin. NASA Views of Earth. New York: Gallery Books, 1985.

In this book it showed pictures of Earth from up in space. The Earth is many different colors when you are looking at it from up in space. It is red, brown, blue, black, white, turquoise, and gray. It showed how big the Earth is when you are looking at it from space. The Earth is way bigger than you think!

Kuhn, Karl F. In Quest of the Universe. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1998.

In this book I learned about the planets. I learned that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have lings around them. There are about 100 craters on the moon.

Pratt, Fletcher. All About Famous Inventors and Their Inventions. New York: Random House, 1955.

Galileo's father didn't want Galileo to grow up poor, so he sent him to school to learn how to be a doctor. Galileo didn't want to be a doctor so he learned how to be a mathematician. Being a mathematician really added up. It helped him make over one hundred telescopes.

Seagell, Robin. To Be An Astronomer. Morristown: United States Publishing Company, 1981.

This book showed me pictures of planets and their moons. It talked about how stars started and how to find them with a telescope. This book gave me lots of important Information that I will need!

Stuttman. Science arid Invention. Westport: H. S. Stuttman, Inc., 1983.

In 1610 Galileo made an instrument that magnified things thirty times bigger. In the 17th century some people made a 60 foot telescope. In 1789 Herschel invented a 40 foot telescope. In 1610 you couldn't see through telescopes that well. You could only see through the middle or just the outer edge. Galileo found a way so you could see through the whole lens.

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol 9, Chicago: World Book Inc., 1995.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a reflecting telescope built as an orbiting observatory. Its' main light-gathering mirror measures 94 inches in diameter. Astronomers have used the Hubble space telescope to find evidence for gigantic black holes. A light year is the distance light can travel in one year. The picture of Hubble on our poster came from here.

The World Book Encyclopedia. Scott Fetter Company, Chicago, 1989.

People thought the moon was smooth before Galileo. Astronomers use two main types of optical telescopes: refracting, the simplest kind, and reflecting. Reflecting telescopes use a mirror instead of a lens for magnifying. Reflectors can be built bigger arid can have better light gathering power. One of the first was built by Sir Isaac Newton. We got the picture we used on our poster of Galileo's and Newton's telescopes from here.

VIDEOS

Dennis Azzarella. The Shaping of the Western World: Galileo, the Challenge of Reason. Produced and directed by Dennis Azzarella. 2 hr. 37 mm. Learning Corporation of America, 1975.

Some people get very mad because a group of people kept saying that the earth is not the center of the universe. In those days whatever the church said, that was what people had to believe. Galileo went against the church and he ended up in jail.

Invention. Technology in America: The Age of Invention. Produced by Richard Kelin. 18 min. Coronet Film, 1987.

This video was about important inventions. Colt invented the revolver. Jefferson was president when the telescope was invented. Thomas Edison invented over 1,000 patents.

NBC's "News Channel Three." Dan Rather. KIEM-TV, Eureka, CA. October 12,1998.

On Jupiter, a thunder and lightning storm is bigger than earth. A crater on Uranus is so big it would take three Mt. Everests to fill it up. An electric storm was observed on the face of one of Jupiter's moons. This was all seen from Hubble space telescope.

North, John. Astronomy and Cosmology. Norton and Company, 1995.

Some people think that Galileo invented the telescope, but he didn't. In this book it explained that Jan Lippershey's oldest child did. Galileo just improved the telescope. He improved it so much that it seemed like he invented it.

Pet, Larry. Exploring Space Series: Beyond Our Solar System. Produced and directed by Larry Pent. 12:35 min. Coronet. Date unknown.

Our galaxy is called The Spiral Galaxy because of the way the Milky Way is shaped. When stars get old, they blow up. The sun is just a hot ball of fire.

Night Sky. The Night Sky. Produced and directed by Hermann D. Tauohert. 11 min. Britannica, 1969.

The moon is our nearest neighbor. The moon is our satellite. The moon is smaller than Earth, it looks bigger because it is closer than the sun. On the moon there is no water or air, so nothing can grow on the moon. Venus is covered in thin white clouds. Mars has two moons.

INTERVIEWS

0' Connell, Bob. "A conversation about telescopes" . Interview by Jade Summers and Michele Cogliati, Kneeland CA. 12 November 1998.

We went to Kneeland school with a class from College of the Redwoods. We looked through six telescopes, one reflecting, one retracting and one reflecting- retracting. They gave us two books. The most important thing that we learned was how important the telescope really is.

Parke, Dr. Charles. "All about telescopes" . Interview by Michele Cogliati, Arcata CA. 23 October 1998.

Charles Parke gave me a very important book, The History of the Telescope. It had lots of information on people who invented and used telescopes. Dr. Parke had taught about telescopes for a long time. He told me how to pronounce some of the names we had read. Dr. Parke had looked through the 24" telescope in Boulder Colorado and he was in the last group of people that got to walk around the Hale telescope at Palomar. The most interesting thing that I learned was that he watched Mercury cross the face of the sun.