Space explorer who invented the first telescope

Prior to Galileo's conflict with the Church, the majority of educated people in the Christian world subscribed either to the Aristotelian geocentric view that the earth was the center of the universe and that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth, or the Tychonic system that blended geocentrism with heliocentrism.

His championship of the Copernican Sun-centred planetary system brought him into serious conflict with the Church, which forced him to make a public recantation and put him under restriction in later life. Galileo, though not the first inventor of the refracting telescope, significantly enhanced its power. In , he learned of the spyglass and began to experiment with telescope-making, grinding and polishing his own lenses.

His telescope allowed him to see with a magnification of eight or nine times, making it possible to see that the Moon had mountains and that Jupiter had satellites. Galileo used observation and experimentation to interrogate and challenge received wisdom and traditional ideas. At the time this was quite a shocking idea, and was one of the reasons that he got into trouble.

He discovered Galileo was able to use the length of the shadows to estimate the height of the lunar mountains, showing that they were similar to mountains on Earth. Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens , inspired by the earlier works of Galileo, built the most powerful telescope of his day in His enormous apparatus for the time was built to make detailed studies of the planets and solar system.

Huygens's greatest contributions to the development of telescopes were his invention of the Huygens ocular and the aerial or tubeless telescope. He would also demonstrate the great utility of a micrometer. Huygens also made great improvements to the grinding of lenses, beginning in After some consultation with well-known opticians, he and his brother acquired some grinding plates and other equipment needed to build a telescope. After some trial and error, a 12 foot 3.

He would use it, to his great satisfaction, to make detailed observations of Saturn. Using his telescope, Huygens was able to observe a bright moon that orbited Saturn, which he dubbed 'Saturni Luna'. This name stuck until John Herschel renamed it Titan in Christiaan also studied Saturn itself in great detail using his telescope, and he was the first to document the true shape of the planet's rings in - they had previously been referred to as the 'ears' of Saturn.

Sir Isaac Newton would later build on the work of his predecessors, notably Kepler, and reasoned that telescopes should use a series of mirrors rather than lenses. He believed, amongst other things, this setup would solve the chromatic aberration issues that plagued refracting telescopes. Newton believed that this issue could never actually be cured using refracting telescopes and resolved himself to find a new solution. Following through on his thoughts the first reflecting telescope, the Newtonian Telescope Reflector was built in Newton's breakthrough was to use a large concave primary mirror to focus light objective onto a smaller flat diagonal mirror that projected an image into an eyepiece on the side of the telescope.

Contrary to popular belief, Newton was not the first to devise the idea of a reflecting telescope. Galileo Galilei and Giovanni Francesco Sagredo had discussed the possibility after the invention of the refracting telescope.

It is also possible that Newton read James Gregory's book Optica Promota that had a description of the concept of a reflecting microscope which used parabolic mirrors. Newton's telescope would prove to have a number of advantages over existing models of the time:. For the next 60 years or so, minor improvements were made to the technology by the likes of Laurent Cassegrain who introduced hyperbolic and parabolic mirrors and John Hadley who improved Newton's model.

The next big leap came in An Englishman, Chester Moore Hall , greatly reduced the chromatic aberration of refracting telescopes when he introduced a new form of lens. This lens consisted of two types of glass, the crown and flint , that were cemented together. With this development, Hall proved that Isaac Newton was mistaken in his supposition that color distortion could not be solved using refracting rather than reflecting telescopes.

Hall discovered his solution by studying the human eye. This led him to the belief that achromatic lenses must be possible somehow. He experimented with many kinds of glass until he found the perfect combination of crown and flint glass that met his specific requirements. In , he built several telescopes with apertures of 2. In , the first giant reflector telescope was built in the UK by William Herschel. He oversaw the construction of a 40 ft 12 meters long Newtonian-based reflector telescope.

This enormous telescope was the largest in its day and would have been a real sight to see. However, as impressive as this must have been, it was far from perfect. Unlock the mysteries of galaxies, stars, planets, and life itself. Hubble's important mission will come to an end one day in the future. But the telescope's ultimate retirement will not signal the end of our unrivaled view of the universe. Rather, it will mark a new beginning -- and even more amazing discoveries and images from space.

For Hubble has a successor. When that day comes, scientists using NGST hope to discover and understand even more about our fascinating universe, such as The formation of the first stars and galaxies The evolution of galaxies and the production of elements by stars The process of star and planet formation. In order to peer back toward the beginning of the universe, NGST will make observations in the visible to the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

NGST is designed to operate in the infrared wavelengths, so it is important to keep the detectors and telescope optics as cold as possible excess heat from the telescope itself would create unwanted "background noise".

Part of the reception included a dinner cruise that traveled from Katwijk to Leiden from the Rhine river to the Kagerplassen.

There are several books that cover the history of astronomy. This book is a good start to learn about history, but the history in the book does end around The organization of the book may seem confusing, but Andersen provides credible information.

The book includes helpful inserts and diagrams to guide any telescope user. Who invented the telescope? Home » Space Questions » Who invented the telescope? What is the History of the Telescope? What did the First Telescope Look Like? Where did the Word Telescope Come From? To protect it from the sun, the telescope has a shield with five layers, each the size of a tennis court Celebrating the Telescope! Related Questions What is a Refracting Telescope? Does the sun rotate? Are we getting closer to the sun?

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