The Evolution of Astronomy: From Ancient Observatories to Modern Telescopes

Long before telescopes, ancient civilizations used the naked eye to study stars. Structures like Stonehenge demonstrate early astronomical observations, aligning with solstices, key to agricultural and religious events.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei improved the design of the Dutch spyglass, creating a telescope with 3x magnification. His enhancements later allowed up to 30x magnification, unveiling moons of Jupiter and challenging heliocentric views.

Isaac Newton introduced the reflecting telescope in 1668, using mirrors to prevent color distortion. This new design became pivotal, leading to larger, more powerful telescopes that revolutionized our view of the cosmos.

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope orbits outside Earth's atmosphere, capturing unprecedented images free from atmospheric distortion, greatly expanding our knowledge of the universe's age, expansion, and contents.

Ground-based telescopes now use adaptive optics to correct atmospheric turbulence in real-time. This technology, pioneered in the 1990s, uses deformable mirrors controlled by computers, sharpening images to rival space telescopes.

The Event Horizon Telescope, a global network of radio telescopes, captured the first image of a black hole's shadow in 2019. This feat combined data from multiple locations, simulating a planet-sized telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, explores the universe in infrared. It can see through dust clouds where stars are born, offering insights into the early universe and exoplanet atmospheres.

The Maya civilization created calendars accurate to within a day every 6,000 years, solely using naked-eye astronomy. This precision rivals modern astronomical calculations.