The History of the Telescope
byBetsy Davis
KIE Developer
Telescopes have had a long history, with the first known telescope being built in 1608 (almost 400 years ago). The patent application called the telescope a device for "seeing faraway things as though nearby." Galileo made the telescope famous, and in the early 1600s, he even discovered four of Jupiter's moons. Soon after, telescopes started getting longer, because the ways to improve the focusing abilities of telescopes were either to lengthen the telescopes or to use mirrors -- and a "reflecting telescope" using mirrors wasn't invented until Newton did so in the 1670s.
Check out the following link to see pictures of several different historical telescopes and read about their development from the 1300s to 1700s:
| KEYWORDS | telescope, history, Galileo, Newton |
| SUBMITTER | Philip Bell |
| METHODS | It appears that a historian of science and technology put together a Web site on the history of telescopes. |
| INSPIRATION | We decided to point to this page on the Web because it provides a very interesting history of the development of telescopes, from the first lenses in the 1300s to the telescopes being used by the 1700s. There are also some great pictures! |
| PROJECTS | How Far Does Light Go? |
| GUIDANCE | - Don't worry too much about the text, unless you're interested in the history. The pictures can give you an idea of what kinds of telescopes there were in the "old days." - Galileo saw the moons of Jupiter with his very early telescope (in the early 1600s). When you look at the night sky with only your eyes, Jupiter just looks like a bright star. Could you see the moons of Jupiter without a telescope? - If you can't see something with just your eyes, but you can see it with a telescope, what does that mean about the light from that object? How does a telescope help you to see it? - Why does the length of a telescope matter? Why does the diameter of a telescope matter? - What is a lens? How does it work? |
| COMPREHENSION TIME | 5 to 20 minutes |
| SCIENCE LEVEL | Middle School and Above |
