21/08/2012

Adam Walton explores the story of telescopes from the early observations of Galileo to the Hubble Space Telescope and beyond. He travels to Cardiff University's School Of Physics & Astronomy to meet meets Dr Edward Gomez of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, who outlines the history of telescopes and how joining telescopes together as a network can increase their accessibility and bring astronomy to more people. We also hear from Dr Chris North who explains how radio telescopes and space based telescopes have vastly increased our knowledge of the Universe. Our reporter Alan Daulby visits Glyndwr University's OpTIC centre in St Asaph to meet Professor David Walker who is leading the team making prototype mirror segments for the European Extremely Large Telescope, due to start operation early in the next decade.

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

Cardiff University School of Physics & Astronomy

Herschel Space Observatory - UK outreach site

Hubble Space Telescope - HubbleSite

BBC One - The Sky At Night

OpTIC