Review: ‘400 Years of the Telescope’

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It is the International Year of Astronomy, you more than likely do not know, and the quadricentennial of the invention that revolutionized the science. The birthday special “400 Years of the Telescope” airs tonight on KCET, and though it is, strictly speaking, 401 years since the first spyglasses appeared, it wasn’t until 1609 that Galileo made the improvements that turned it from an instrument of terrestrial convenience to one of celestial investigation. So calculate your azimuths, kids, and let’s party!

Made by and featuring people who know and care about telescopes, it is handsomely put together (in “4K resolution digital cinematography,” which does sound impressive), but also informed by a kind of gaiety that, given the subject, seems absolutely fitting. (Stars and planets and spiral nebulae -- what’s not to like?) It is not particularly heavy on science, past explaining a few simple things about lenses and prisms and changing notions of astral geometry, and various steps in the ongoing refinement of instrument and image.

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