History Main / Chronoscope

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In a ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'' comic story (based on a script from the ''Superboy'' live-action TV series that wasn't, [[https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-legends-revealed-343/ apparently]]), Superboy flies out into space in order to make a home movie to show his friend that the friend's father was a hero during the war. Superboy goes faster than light so he can film the light coming from Earth, which shows what happened in the past.

* ''A Quantum Murder'' by Creator/PeterFHamilton. The murder is of a scientist who was working on neurohormones that could be used to see through time, so the investigators use a sample he's left behind to do so. [[spoiler:They see him being killed by one of his own students who has gone insane, but it's later revealed that the murderer was brainwashed to do so by the real culprit, who was worried that the neurohormone could be used to see a murder he had committed eleven years previously. Alarmed by the implications of looking back in time, Julia Evans, the idealistic but powerful CEO of Event Horizon, arranges for the destruction of the neurohormone and all records, and gives a generous job offer (of the [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse accept-or-else kind]]) to the student so [[YouKnowTooMuch she can keep an eye on him]].]]

Compare MagicMirror or CrystalBall, which may have the ability to show these events as well. IntangibleTimeTravel is, essentially, a more immersive variant of this - analogous to VirtualReality versus videotape.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase "The Chase"]] (with the First Doctor, William Hartnell, and only the third Dalek story ever) features a Time-Space Visualiser which can view any event in history.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E10TheGirlWhoWaited "The Girl Who Waited"]]: The Two Streams medical facility has a time glass that can be used by people in the Green Anchor section watching their loved ones in the Red Waterfall section. The Doctor steals it and makes some adjustments so he and Rory can find Amy, who's stuck in the Red Waterfall section.
* ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'': The Time Variance Authority has a device with a projector that shows glimpses of one's life. The {{alternate|self}} Loki learns via this that actions of his will cause the death of his mother Frigga in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld''. Then later he uses the device to witness further events of his life, including his death in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Time to Time", the time travel agency Chrononics has a viewing portal which allows them to monitor their agents when they travel through time. Clips from "Tribunal" and "Gettysburg" are used to represent these missions.
* The Atavachron from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.

* ''Series/TheTimeTunnel''. In addition to sending items and living beings through time, the scientists controlling the eponymous device could also use it as a time viewer to see the past and the future.
* ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "A Most Unusual Camera" has a camera that can see into the future.
* In ''Series/Runaways2017'' a machine gets invented that exploits the [[TechnoBabble curvature of spacetime by gravity]] to view future events. At one point it's used to send a message from the future to avoid a catastrophe.

* A malfunctioning "time-scanner" was what brought the dinosaurs to the present day in ''TabletopGame/DinosaursAttack.''

* Wormholes in theory could be used as this, you could move one exit of a wormhole near to a strong gravitational field, like a black hole, the gravitational effect will cause time to go slower in said wormhole exit than in the other; then when moving the wormhole's exit away from the gravitational field it will retain the "time delay" and effectively become a window/portal to the past, the only caveat being that it cannot show anything ''before'' the wormhole's creation.
* Given that the speed of light is peanuts next to the size of the Universe, when we observe it we're using a natural chronoscope. We see Proxima Centauri as it was a bit more than four years ago, the center of our Galaxy as it was 28,000 years ago, Andromeda as 2.56 million years ago, etc. and besides more or less educated guessings we do not know how they are now and what happened there in the interim.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ultra-tech'' describes the "timescanner". It has very limited abilities: it can only display things in a two-yard radius, it needs days to focus on the specified moment in time, and it is only available in soft science fiction settings anyway. And until a portable version is invented, the timescanner machinery occupies an entire room.

* In the fictional narrative surrounding the {{Music/Weezer}} album ''Everything Will Be Alright In The End,'' protagonist Joe Laffoley creates "The Futurescope," a device that lets him see transmissions relating to his future, as a way of answering questions about his life.

* In the fictional narrative surrounding the {{Music/Weezer}} album "Everything Will Be Alright In The End," protagonist Joe Laffoley creates "The Futurescope," a device that lets him see transmissions relating to his future, as a way of answering questions about his life.

* The fictional narrative surrounding the Weezer album "Everything Will Be Alright In The End," protagonist Joe Laffoley creates "The Futurescope," a device that lets him see transmissions relating to his future, as a way of answering questions about his life.

* In ''{{Film/Tomorrowland}}'' the protagonists use a device to look into the past [[spoiler:and future]] using Tachyons

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Ultra-tech'' describes the "timescanner". It has very limited abilities: it can only display things in a two-yard radius, it needs days to focus on the specified moment in time, and it is only available in [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness soft sci-fi]] settings anyway. And until a portable version is invented, the timescanner machinery occupies an entire room.