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Galileo's Telescope

Galileo was the inventor of the first telescope, however it did not come without inspiration from other inventions. The spyglass was first invented, and then spectacles followed. In 1609 it was discovered that if one put a lens of the farsighted a distance away from one that was for nearsighted and peers through the farsighted lens then distant objects would come into focus. As soon as Galileo learned of this, he set out to refine it. The first design lead Galileo to find that lenses which were flat on one side and curved on the other (plano-convex and plano-concave) were ideal. Then using a mathematics equation, Galileo was able to create a spyglass which could magnify images three times its original size. This was in 1609, the same time Galileo began using his magnification spyglass to view the night sky.

By placing cardboard around around the edges of the lens at the far end of the telescope so that the light was forced through the lens at a point where distortions were least apparent, thus elongation and blurriness of the images seen were lessened. Another problem presented itself as Galileo strived to make the images larger. This, he found, resulted in the images being cut off and his field of view smaller. It was then Galileo's friend, Johannaes Kepler, suggested using a convex lens as oppose to concave lens. Of course, this only created another problem of the images being viewed upside-down but it was not seen as a priority in Galileo's day.

With great discovery often comes great disappointment though. While Galileo paved the way for refractor telescopes which soon gave life to reflector telescopes and so on, he was also extremely scrutinized. Due to his findings of the night sky, namely moons rotating around Juniper, Galileo found proof that everything did not revolve around the sun. It was here that Galileo's telescope became a dangerous thing. Since the time period Galileo lives in was ruled primary by the Church, this finding was not looked upon favorably by most of the population.

Visitor Comments

fenn guy said:
hi at the moment we are learning about the earth so for homework we had to write about galilao and the hubble telescope i thought it was fasinating!

Friday November 21, 2008, 06:43 PM

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