📚 Telescopes

The instrument that made modern astronomy: optics and the great telescopes, and how a tube of mirrors reaches back to the early universe.

Below are the 30 works carrying the subject telescopes in the Open Library catalogue with the most editions in print. Author and first year are as the record states them; a missing year means the record does not carry one, not that the book is undated. Novels set in the subject are left out, because a list of historical fiction is not a list of history. Where one author dominates the reprint counts, no more than two of their titles appear.

Cover	Title	Author	First published	Editions
	Pleasures of the telescope	Garrett Putman Serviss	1901	20
	Destination	Seymour Simon	2000	17
	Nightwatch	Terence Dickinson	1983	11
	Universe	Robin Kerrod	1975	9
	Space Telescopes	Andrew Langley	2019	9
	The Backyard Astronomer's Guide	Terence Dickinson	1991	7
	Seeing and Believing	Richard Panek	1998	7
	The adjustment and testing of telescope objectives	Harold Dennis Taylor	1921	6
	Eyes on the universe	Isaac Asimov	1975	6
	Oversight--space telescope, 1982	United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications.	1982	6
	The cosmic inquirers	Wallace H. Tucker	1986	6
	Francis Watkins and the Dollond Telescope Patent Controversy	Brian Gee	2014	6
	The telescope	Louis Bell	1922	5
	The history of the telescope	Henry C. King	1955	5
	Binoculars & all-purpose telescopes	Henry E. Paul	1964	5
	The Perfect Machine	Ronald Florence	1994	5
	How to make a telescope	Jean Texereau	1957	4
	Telescopes for skygazing	Henry E. Paul	1965	4
	Astronomy through the telescope	Richard Learner	1981	4
	Build Your Own Telescope	Richard Berry	1985	4
	Astronomy With a Small Telescope	James Muirden	1986	4
	Through My Telescope	Heather Rau	2013	4
	Tara's Telescope	Mary Rosewald	2013	4
	The monster telescopes	Thomas Woods	1857	3
	Making your own telescope	Allyn J. Thompson	1947	3
	Astronomical photography at the telescope	Thomas Rackham	1959	3
	All about telescopes	Brown, Sam	1967	3
	Alvan Clark & Sons: artists in optics	Deborah Jean Warner	1968	3
	How to buy and understand refracting telescopes	Jordan Levenson	1981	3
	Build your own telescope	Richard Berry	1985	3

List built from Open Library (CC0 metadata) · retrieved 03 Nov 2026 UTC · capped at 30 works per subject.

Nearby shelves

TennisTerrorismThe AccordionThe AlphabetThe American Civil WarThe Amish

Want the ideas behind these books explained rather than listed? Try Study for short explainers, Academy for deeper tracks, and the periodic table or the night sky when the book is about matter or stars.