The History of the Telescope

For centuries, mankind has always pondered upon the wonders that is beyond our planet, the Earth. The invention of the telescope has vastly improved our view of the skies, sharpening our perception of the universe and penetrating ever deeper, to the furthest edges of time and space. The underlying roots to the invention of the telescope is vague and thought to have started around during the 13th century. An accidental discovery made by a glassmaker during this era, resulted in the development and defined the early beginnnings of spectacles. The glassmaker discovered the magnifying effect of glass when objects glanced through a glass disk appeared clearer and larger in size. It was not until the 17th century which convex lenses were utilised together to create what we now call the “telescope”.

The actual, true inventor of the telescope will never be known,however, a dutch spectacle maker by the name of Hans Lippershey was the first person to patent. The patent was denied as there were disputes over who was the foremost and earliest inventor of the telescope. The underlying reasoning laid upon the claims of other merchants who also declared themselves to have conceived the invention, whom one of which is Lippershey’s competitor, Zacharias Jansen. Hans figured that if he combined a convex and a concave lens with one another, it would greatly magnify the object of interest when observed through the newly merged lens. During this time the telescope was not used to observe the stars but rather as a war tool by the navy. The discovery and creation of the telescope spread like wildfire which led a physicist and astronomer named Galileo Galilei to construct the device in 1609. Galileo saw the potential of the telescope which led to th...

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...it the Sun. Astronomer’s quest for cosmic understanding and their telescopic exploration of the universe in only 400 years old and in conclusion there is still a long way to go.

Works Cited

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http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/hale.html

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http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/06/history-of-the-telescope-draft.ars/

http://www.universetoday.com/18210/telescope-history/

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http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~meech/mp/A_Brief_History.pdf

http://www.cmnh.org/site/Files/AtMuseum/InTheSky/Telescopes.pdf