Timeline of telescopes, observatories, and observing technology

• 1800 BC - Babylonian star catalog
• 1700 BC - Stonehenge
• 432 BC - Athens observatory on Lycabettus Hill used by Meton and Phaeinus
• 350s BC - Eudoxus of Cnidos observatory, school at Cyzicus
• 350 BC - Shin Shen's star catalog has almost 800 entries
• 330 BC - Aristotle _On the Heavens_ [De Caelo]
• 200 BC - Astrolabe used by Greeks
• 150 BC - Rhodes observatory
• 129 BC - Hipparchus' star catalog
• 105 BC - Alexandria observatory and College of Technology under Heron
• 52 BC - Shou-chang uses armillary ring
• 141 - Claudius Ptolemy _Megale Mathematike Syntaxis_ [or Almagest]
• 499 - Aryabhata _Aryabhatiya_
• 646 - Cheomseongdae astronomical observatory near Kyongju, South Korea (formerly Silla)
• 790 - Gundishapur observations by al-Nihawandi
• 813 - Baghdad School of Astronomy
• 828 - al-Shammasiyya observatory of Abi Mansur near Baghdad
• 831-2 - Mount Qasiyun observatory near Damascus
• 840 - al-Farghani _Compendium of the Science of the Stars_
• 887 - Raqqa observatory of al-Battani in Syria
• 963 - al-Sufi's star catalog _Book of the Fixed Stars_
• 988 - Baghdad observatory of al-Quhi and al-Buzjani
• ca. 900 - Hanlin Academy observatory in Northern China
• 994 - Ray observatory of al-Khujandi near Tehran, Iran
• 1000 - Mokattam observatory, Egypt for al-Hakim II
• 1023 - Hamadan observatory
• ca. 1030 - _Treasury of Optics_ by Ibn al-Haytham of Egypt [Alhazen]
• 1074-92 - Malikshah observatory at Isfahan used by al-Khayyam
• 1119-25 - Cairo al-Bataihi observatory for al-Afdal
• 1252-72 - Alphonsine tables recorded
• 1259 - Maragha Observatory and library of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi by Mangu under Khan Hulagu
• ca. 1270 - Terrace for Managing Heaven 26 observatory network of Guo Shoujing under Khubilai Khan
• 1417 - _Speculum Planetarum_ by Simones de Selandia
• 1420 - Samarkand observatory of Ulugh Beg
• 1467-71 - Observatory at Oradea Hungary for King Corvinus
• 1472 - Nuremberg observatory
• 1560 - Kassel observatory under Hessian Landgrave Wilhelm IV
• 1575-80 - Istanbul observatory of al-Din under Murad III
• 1580 - Royal Danish Astronomical Observatory at Hveen (Uraniborg) for Tycho Brahe
• 1600 - Prague observatory
• 1603 - Johann Bayer's _Uranometria_

• 1608 - Hans Lippershey tries to patent an optical refracting telescope
• 1609 - Galileo Galilei builds his first optical refracting telescope
• 1632 - Leiden University observatory
• 1641 - William Gascoigne invents telescope cross hairs
• 1661 - James Gregory proposes an optical reflecting telescope
• 1667 - Paris observatoire
• 1668 - Isaac Newton constructs the first optical reflecting telescope
• 1675 - Royal Greenwich Observatory of England
• 1705 - Berlin observatory
• 1725 - St. Petersburg observatory at Royal Academy
• 1733 - Chester Moor Hall invents the achromatic lens refracting telescope
• 1740 - Indian observatories of Jai Singh at Dehli, Jaipur, Madras
• 1758 - John Dolland reinvents the achromatic lens
• 1789 - William Herschel finishes a 49-inch optical reflecting telescope---located in Slough, England
• 1761 - Joseph-Nicolas Delisle 62 observing station network for observing transit of Venus (& Mercury)
• 1769 - Short reflectors used at 63 station network for transit of Venus
• 1840 - J.W. Draper invents astronomical photography and photographs the Moon
• 1845 - Lord Rosse finishes the Birr Castle 72-inch optical reflecting telescope---located in Parsonstown, Ireland
• 1871 - German Astronomical Association organized network of 13 (later 16) observatories for stellar proper motion studies
• 1872 - Henry Draper invents astronomical spectral photography and photographs the spectrum of Vega
• 1887 - Paris conference institutes Carte du Ciel project to map entire sky to 14th magnitude photographically
• 1888 - 91cm refracting telescope completed at Lick Observatory, near San Jose, California
• 1889 - Astronomical Society of the Pacific founded
• 1890 - Albert Michelson proposes the stellar interferometer
• 1892 - George Hale finishes a spectroheliograph---allows the Sun to be photographed in the light of one element only
• 1897 - Alvan Clark finishes the Yerkes 40-inch optical refracting telescope---located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin
• 1917 - Mount Wilson 100-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Mount Wilson, California
• 1919 - International Astronomical Union (IAU) founded
• 1930 - Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot invents the coronagraph
• 1930 - Karl Jansky builds a 30-meter long rotating aerial radio telescope
• 1933 - Bernard-Ferdinand Lyot invents the Lyot filter
• 1934 - Bernhard Schmidt finishes the first 14-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope
• 1936 - Palomar 18-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Palomar, California
• 1937 - Grote Reber builds a 31-foot radio telescope
• 1947 - Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 218-foot non-steerable radio telescope
• 1949 - Palomar 48-inch Schmidt optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Palomar, California
• 1949 - Palomar 200-inch optical reflecting telescope begins regular operation---located in Palomar, California
• 1957 - Bernard Lovell and his group complete the Jodrell Bank 250-foot steerable radio telescope
• 1957 - Peter Scheuer publishes his PhD method for obtaining source counts of spatially unresolved sources
• 1960 - Martin Ryle tests Earth rotation aperature synthesis
• 1960 - Owens Valley 27-meter radio telescopes begin operation---located in Big Pine, California
• 1962 - European Southern Observatory (ESO) founded
• 1963 - Arecibo 300-meter radio telescope begins operation---located in Arecibo, Puerto Rico
• 1964 - Ryle 1-mile radio interferometer begins operation---located in Cambridge, England
• 1965 - Owens Valley 40-meter radio telescope begins operation---located in Big Pine, California
• 1967 - First VLBI images---183 km baseline
• 1969 - Observations start at Big Bear Solar Observatory---located in Big Bear, California
• 1970 - Cerro Tololo 158-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Cerro Tololo, Chile
• 1970 - Kitt Peak National Observatory 158-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located near Tucson, Arizona
• 1974 - Anglo-Australian 153-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Siding Springs, Australia
• 1975 - Gerald Smith, Frederick Landauer, and James Janesick use a CCD to observe Uranus---first astronomical CCD observation
• 1978 - Multiple Mirror 176-inch equivalent optical/infrared reflecting telescope begins operation---located in Amado, Arizona
• 1979 - UKIRT 150-inch infrared reflecting telescope begins operation---located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
• 1979 - Canada-France-Hawaii 140-inch optical reflecting telescope begins operation---located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
• 1980 - Completion of construction of the VLA---located in Socorro, New Mexico
• 1993 - Keck 10-meter optical/infrared reflecting telescope begins operation---located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii
• 1997 - The Japanese Halca satellite begins operations, producing first VLBI observations from space. --- 25000 km maximum baseline
• 1998 - First light at VLT1, the 8.2 m ESO telescope.
• 2001 - First light at VLTI. Operations in the interferometry mode of VLT start at ESO --- 103 m baseline