A long ago look into space – or is it a future look?

September 29, 2010 by  
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When I was in high school we were told that the Griffith Observatory had a 20 inch telescope.  (I think it was 20″)  but they were building one at Palomar..and had already been working on it for years…that would be 100 inches.

As best I remember astronomers at that time spoke of other galaxies beyond our own Milky Way….but it was still somewhat hypothetical and certainly no one would ever have guessed more than 10,000 galaxies in a very tiny area of the heavens.

Some learned men and women estimated the age of the universe at 500 million years.  Some learned theologists disagreed. Some astronomers believed there were a few other galaxies; other than our Milky Way.

It was all cutting edge stuff in 1950-52 and my parents told me to take it with a grain of salt…

My guess is that in 2060 some teenager is going to go to his/her teacher and ask “How in the world could anyone learn much about the heavens with something as antique as the Hubble  telescope.”

Take a couple of minutes and look at this amazing video.  It makes one humble.

Go to: http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm