Astronomical observation has its roots in antiquity. Ever since the citizens of ancient Babylonia, China, Egypt, and Greece designed crude wood tools to measure the movement of the stars and planets across the heavens, humankind has been improving those primitive implements to investigate the cosmos and attempt to understand its workings.

Those early astronomical tools, like all tools, were extensions of people's interest to know morein this case to know more about Earth's celestial movement and the moon's rotation around Earth, and to understand the mechanics of the solar system. Using tools called quadrants and astrolabes, early astronomers answered questions about the regular movement of planets and the distance from Earth to the moon and sun. These devices also aided explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan by determining the earthly position of their ships across the...