Quasars, Active Galaxies and Cosmology

Abstract

The progress of astronomy has gone hand in hand with advances in technology. In the main this hasbeen manifest as a fairly steady, if steepening, learning curve. Every so often, though, astronomy has undergone periods of major upheaval and advance. The 1960s was such a period, with a sudden spurt of technology, including the opening up of many electromagnetic wavebands for practical observation, along with the discovery of a few very significant new types of astronomical bodies and phenomena. Astronomers were also then in a position to ask questions about the nature and evolution of the Universe while discovering a few definite clues to guide them on the beginning of the quest for the answers.