Hubble had a problem. so it was 3 years before the corrected images were seen.

I think the "wow" by then was mostly.. "thank god the fix worked"

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>but did we have prior knowledge of the sheer scope and beauty of the cosmos?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field#Scientific_results

The HDF data provided extremely rich material for cosmologists to analyse and by late 2014 the associated scientific paper for the image had received over 900 citations.[15] One of the most fundamental findings was the discovery of large numbers of galaxies with high redshift values.

> were other events forcing it to the side-line?

not sure what you mean by "side-line"