Jacksonville Film Festival 2009

Panoramic visuals, cutting-edge technologies and engaging interviews position 400 Years of the Telescope as the must-see cinematic feature for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Beautifully photographed in 4K resolution digital cinematography, the film is a visually stunning chronicle of the history of the telescope from the time of Galileo, its profound impact upon the science of astronomy, and how both have shaped the way we view ourselves in the midst of an infinite universe. The Interstellar Studios production team traveled the globe to interview leading astronomers and cosmologists from the world’s renowned universities and observatories. The producers sought the most acute minds at great astronomical centers including the European Southern Observatory, Institute for Astronomy, SETI Institute, Space Telescope Science Institute, Anglo-Australian Observatory, and Harvard University. They journeyed across five continents to visually write the story of the past and the future of telescopes, astronomy, and our ever-changing perception of the cosmos. A carefully chosen array of today’s leading astronomers explain concepts ranging from Galileo’s act of revealing the telescopic cosmos to humanity and challenging religious teachings of the day, to the latest discoveries in space, including startling new ideas about life on other planets and dark energy – a mysterious vacuum energy that is accelerating the expansion of the universe. On the horizon, viewers learn of emergent telescopes the size of stadiums. With unprecedented resolution and light gathering, these enormous new instruments will look back to the initial moments of the Big Bang and – like Galileo’s first telescopic observations – will reshape our model of the universe.