The Markle Telescope, by Jacob Haase

6 Responses to "The Markle Telescope, by Jacob Haase"

Vinay Ghai says:

May 9, 2014 at 6:46 pm

I thought this was a great slidecast. Hearing about the history of telescopes and Galileo is always a good reminder about how far we’ve come, which is another point you mentioned at the end of the slidecast when you advised against being presentist. The history of the company that built the telescope was also interesting – the transformation from Galileo’s wooden telescope to the turret lathe and then onward to the radio telescope further proves the point about how one technology can lead to another. Furthermore, the points made about the introduction of observatories to universities and the subsequent introduction of physics to universities also grabbed my attention, simply because I hadn’t realized it had taken so long for many universities to switch to physics and to become secular, in general. One fault I noticed was that the audio was a little patchy and cut off prematurely in some places, but it wasn’t anything overly significant to the point where I couldn’t understand the dialogue. I thought this was very well done overall.

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Mike Fogarty says:

May 11, 2014 at 12:31 pm

I really enjoyed learning about the history behind the Markle Telescope. I thought you did an excellent job on giving some serious background information about the telescope and how the origin of looking into outer space was because of religious purposes. There was a smooth, clean transition from the background information to actually talking about the Markle Telescope and other universities. Knowing that the telescope was originally in the now Colton Chapel really illustrates what you mentioned in earlier slides about how telescopes were for religious purposes. Even though Lafayette is a private institution, the telescope, with the God reference on the base plate, was placed in a religious building. In addition, I also thought it was interesting the company that built the telescope actually ended up becoming a textile company and electronics company sometime after World War II. Overall, you conveyed the information extremely well, and I learned a lot about the history of telescopes and the Markle Telescope. Good job.

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Ethan Ossolinski says:

May 11, 2014 at 4:43 pm

Given an oddball topic I think you did a good job putting a specific telescope into its historical context. I found it especially interesting that the telescope was originally placed into Colton Chapel. You presentation had a a satisfactory amount of dry humor through out which was nice after watching several of these videos. I don’t think that its a coincidence that astronomy has come up so much in this course. It proliferation through out changing societies has been typical of the idea of Kranzberg’s sixth law. One consideration I have on your project would be to maybe focus on the technical aspect of the Markle telescope before, tell us what kind it was, how far it could view… Overall a great job. Wow…much astronomy!

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Jesse Greenfield says:

May 11, 2014 at 5:12 pm

I really like your presentation because I was interested to hear the background of the telescope and the company who created it. I thought you did a great job with the history and the background of the company who created it. I also like the historical context you gave with Galileo and his invention of the telescope. I thought the audio sounded a bit washed out(maybe you were too far away from the mic?) I like the slide where you talked about the age of precision machines and how that was one of the reasons why Lafayette was gifted the telescope. I also liked your slide about how physics became secular and how long it took for universities to adapt.

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Daniela de Lucio says:

May 12, 2014 at 11:14 am

I really liked how the presentation was narrated. You spoke very clearly and your word choices were quite captivating. I could imagine that this topic was somewhat difficult because it was such a specific topic with limited information. Regardless, I think you did an awesome job finding the important facts and relationships between the telescope and its place and use in society at the time (the Galileo aspect was a really cool way to go about presenting the telescope). The presentation was definitely well thought out and it showed. My only criticism was that the sound was a bit fuzzy and faint so it was a little hard to hear. Other than that, I really enjoyed the slidecast. The visuals you chose were also really cool and you did a good job tying them into the topic of the markle telescope.

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Sean Burke says:

May 12, 2014 at 2:24 pm

Great job with this slidecast. I was impressed by the way you took this topic – the Markle Telescope – which is not a modern invention, and took it in a unique direction. It was interesting to find out some of the details about the Markle Telescope, which I did not know existed until we took a field trip there this semester! Haase did a very good job connecting the Markle Telescope to today’s time period and explaining its relevance using class themes, which is particularly difficult because, as Haase said, that particular model of telescope is obsolete. The telescope laid the groundwork for astronomy and allowed the first looks into space, helping us earthlings find our place in the universe.
Good job explaining the historical context of the telescope, and Galileo’s story. Haase talked about patronage; in the beginning it was the church that motivated Galileo to study astronomy, and then it was more secular motivation such as navigation. Good job touching on class themes such as patronage, historical context, and presentism. The slidecast was interesting and flowed well, and the positive message at the end was great.

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