Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei is also referred to as the father of modern science, or the father of observational astronomy. Galileo was a philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who provided science and astronomy with significant additions. He also made immense innovations regarding the telescope, one of them being observing the four largest moons of Jupiter, which were later on named after him.
Galileo and the Telescope
Now, who is the mastermind behind the invention of the telescope? Many praise Galileo Galilei. Although he did not invent the telescope, he made some notable improvements. Nevertheless, the first to apply for a patent for this optical device was Hans Lippershey, a Dutch eyeglass maker. Galileo heard about it and, in 1609, built his own variant, and created a telescope for astronomy purposes.
Although he did not invent the telescope, he still made several improvements and was the first to point a telescope at the sky. Galileo made his first telescope in 1609, modeled after telescopes produced in other parts of Europe that could magnify objects 3x. He created a telescope later that same year that was able to magnify objects up to 20x. Yes, Lipperhey’s telescope was first, however, Galileo’s telescope was of better quality.
The Reflecting Telescope
It was Galileo who came up with the concept of a reflecting telescope. This telescope applied a spherical mirror whose inner side was reflecting in the place of a lens in order to focus incoming light. The original model of this telescope only provided 8x magnification but it was soon improved to a 20x magnification.
This telescope had an objective lens that was curved outward and an eyepiece in a long tube that was curved inward. The main issue with his telescopes was the extremely narrow field of view.
Galileo’s Observations
Galileo Galilei observed the Moon and found that found the “surface of the moon to be not smooth, even and perfectly spherical, but on the contrary, to be uneven, rough, and crowded with depressions and bulges. And it is like the face of the earth itself, which is marked here and there with chains of mountains and depths of valleys.”
He was also the first to observe the Moons of Jupiter, today known as Galilean satellites. And of course, we cannot forget The Phases of Venus, Sunspots, Saturn’s rings, and the stars in the Milky Way, and he depicted all of them in his drawings.
