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Telescope: A Brief History of The Telescope

Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey is credited with patenting the first telescope in 1608, which could magnify images up to three times. Over the following 400 years, the telescope underwent tremendous transformations, becoming more complex as great scientists like Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton contributed improvements. The telescope revolutionized astronomy by allowing Galileo to observe celestial bodies, finding that the moon had mountains and craters and discovering Jupiter's moons, changing perceptions of Earth's place in the universe. Modern telescopes detect radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum and are used in conjunction with other instruments and spacecraft, dramatically advancing knowledge of the solar system and beyond.

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98 views3 pages

Telescope: A Brief History of The Telescope

Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey is credited with patenting the first telescope in 1608, which could magnify images up to three times. Over the following 400 years, the telescope underwent tremendous transformations, becoming more complex as great scientists like Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton contributed improvements. The telescope revolutionized astronomy by allowing Galileo to observe celestial bodies, finding that the moon had mountains and craters and discovering Jupiter's moons, changing perceptions of Earth's place in the universe. Modern telescopes detect radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum and are used in conjunction with other instruments and spacecraft, dramatically advancing knowledge of the solar system and beyond.

Uploaded by

Hazraphine Linso
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TELESCOPE

Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey (or Lipperhey) is widely credited as the


first person to patent a telescope in 1608. His device, called a kijker ("looker"),
was, according to Hans, able to magnify an image up to three times. 

A Brief History of the Telescope


The telescope was first patented in 1608, but over the last 400 years it has
increased in complexity to a great extent.
The telescope has undergone an enormous transformation since it was first
developed in the 17th Century. Some of the greatest minds from Galileo
Galilei to Sir Isaac Newton to the great Edwin Hubble would all contribute, over
time, to the development of some of the most advanced scientific pieces of
equipment ever devised by man.

It consisted of a concave eyepiece that was aligned with another convex


objective lens. According to legend, he conceived of the idea when seeing two
children holding up two lenses that appeared to make a distant weather vane appear
closer.

Despite his patent, some contemporaries claimed he stole their idea. One
notable example includes another glassmaker from the same town called Zacharias
Jansen. Many historians fully recognize Lippershey as the inventor of the first
telescope; however, it is due to his actual patent application. It does appear that
both men independently created their own designs with Jansen being credited with
inventing the compound microscope. 

IMPORTANCE/USE OF TELESCOPE

The telescope is one of humankind's most important inventions. The simple


device that made far away things look near gave observers a new perspective.
When curious men pointed the spyglass toward the sky, our view of Earth and our
place in the universe changed forever. This device is used to form magnified
images of distant objects. The telescope is undoubtedly the most important
investigative tool in astronomy. It provides a means of collecting and analyzing
radiation from celestial objects, even those in the far reaches of the universe.

Galileo revolutionized astronomy when he applied the telescope to the study


of extraterrestrial bodies in the early 17th century. Until then, magnification
instruments had never been used for this purpose. Since Galileo’s pioneering work,
increasingly more powerful optical telescopes have been developed, as has a wide
array of instruments capable of detecting and measuring radiation in every region
of the electromagnetic spectrum. Observational capability has been
further enhanced by the invention of various kinds of auxiliary instruments (e.g.,
the camera, spectrograph, and charge-coupled device) and by the use of
electronic computers, rockets, and spacecraft in conjunction with telescope
systems. These developments have contributed dramatically to advances in
scientific knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way Galaxy, and the
universe as a whole.
Sources:
https://interestingengineering.com/a-brief-history-of-the-telescope-from-1608-to-
gamma-rays
https://www.space.com/21950-who-invented-the-telescope.html
https://www.britannica.com/science/optical-telescope

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