Built improved telescopes from 1609 and turned them on the sky
Plate 041
1608
Middelburg and The Hague, Dutch Republic
No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
Hans Lippershey applied for a patent in the Dutch Republic in October 1608. The date is documented; who first built one is disputed.
About credit
The Dutch government declined to grant a patent because several people claimed the idea. Galileo did not invent the telescope but was first to make systematic astronomical use of it.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before the Telescope
Astronomers measured the sky with the naked eye and sighting instruments. The Moon, planets and stars were seen only as points or discs.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Dutch spectacle makers combined a convex and a concave lens to magnify. In 1609 Galileo built his own with about 3× magnification and quickly improved it to around 20×. In his 1610 book Sidereus Nuncius he described mountains on the Moon and four moons orbiting Jupiter.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
The Telescope, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Collecting light
A large front lens gathers light and forms a small image of a distant object.
Collecting light
Magnifying the image
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Astronomy
New worlds and phenomena were observed and recorded.
Science
Instruments became central to proving ideas.
It showed that the heavens were open to observation and changed what people believed about their place in the universe.
V
Before and after
Life before and after The Telescope
Before
A bright point of light.
After
A disc with four moons moving beside it.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
