400 Years of the Telescope (2009)

A documentary following the history of the telescope from the days of Copernicus to recent findings from the Hubble Telescope; 400 Years of the Telescope opens in 17th century Florence, Italy, with Galileo training his spyglass on the heavens and discovering that Jupiter has four moons; Venus has phases like the Moon; and most shocking of all: the Earth is not the center of the universe. Beautifully photographed in 4K digital cinematography, the film is a visually stunning chronicle of the history of the telescope from the time of Galileo, its profound impact upon the science of astronomy, and how both shape the way we view ourselves in the midst of an infinite universe. The film features interviews with leading astrophysicists and ,sts from the world’s renowned universities and observatories, who explain concepts ranging from Galileo’s act of revealing the cosmos with a simple telescope, to the latest discoveries in space, including startling new ideas about life on other planets and dark energy ? a mysterious vacuum energy that is accelerating the expansion of the universe.

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400 Years of the Telescope (2009)