Some Vistas of Astronomical Discovery

As is the case with all epochs, the present one has its own characteristics—both in its political and in its scientific aspects. The science of 1960 is not the science of 1920 ; and, most emphatically, the astronomy of 1960 is not the astronomy of 1920. The differences are not entirely differences in instrumentation and in techniques ; even if the instruments of the 1950’s had been identical with those of 1920, we would have been doing different things with them because our thinking has matured and our approximation to reality in the astronomical field has improved through the investigations of the intervening years. But the appearance of the new subjects of radio astronomy and space science, with the accompanying revolution in instrumentation, is certainly the most spectacular astronomical development of the past thirty years ; and the implications for the future in these subjects lie beyond the range of the imagination. However, the field of optical astronomy also has its charms for the future—even for earth-bound astronomers and telescopes. I should like to spend a few minutes describing some of these possibilities as they appear to a simple observer. The omission of further reference to radio astronomy, and to space, should not be considered as a detraction from their importance, but rather as a confession of inadequacy on my part to discuss them.