Stargazer

Telescopes have a long history shaped by inventive minds who refused to give up. Fred Watson follows the people who pointed these instruments at the sky, among them Galileo, Johann Kepler, Isaac Newton, William Herschel, George Ellery Hale and Edwin Hubble. Their personalities are as memorable as their discoveries, and some were distinctly eccentric.

Watson, an Australian astronomer of considerable standing, explains how the telescope works and how it evolved, all in plain language with a light, good-humored touch. Readers get the science and engineering behind each leap forward alongside the human stories that drove them.

Across roughly four centuries, the telescope changed how humanity understands the cosmos. This book traces that change, showing how a single tool reshaped our picture of the universe.