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Credit for the invention of the lenses used in binoculars and telescopes given to Lippershey
Lippershey was recognized for assisting in the building and inventing of the lenses. Although the government did not patent it, Lippershey was given a job making the first binoculars. At the time, these were described as technology that allowed for "seeing faraway things as though nearby"(AIP). -
Galileo
Galileo reads reports of the invention of the telescope. He then proceeds to create and improve a model of his own. Galileo was the first person to use the telescope in the pursuit of Astronomical discoveries since he was able to significantly increase their magnification abilities. -
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler is the first astronomer to use a convex eyepiece instead of a concave one. This gave him advantages of larger viewing area and projection. However, the quality of the image is not as good as Galileo’s. So this version of a telescope did not become as popular. -
Japan
The first telescope is brought to Japan by captain John Saris. He was an English man who brought the telescope on the Clove. He gave it to an important local official, Matsura Hoin,. -
Modern Astronomical telescope
The modern astronomical telescope used today is not the same model used by galileo. Christoph Scheiner was a Jesuit priest. He constructed the first modern telescope using Kepler's design. Scheiner improved the magnification and lenses that made it possibly to view images that far away so clearly. -
Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes was and astronomer and philosopher. Although he was best known for his philosophies, he did make important changes to the telescope. His advancements were in the optics of a telescope. -
Bonaventura Cavalieri
Cavalieri publishes a book on new theories about mirrors. He gave ideas for how mirrors could be used to improve telescopes. He was very knowledgable about concave and convex lanses. -
Campani Brothers
The campani brothers re invented a Keplerian telescope. It was a refracting telescope that used very modern lenses. In fact, the telescope they created was considered the best of their time period and many years to come. -
Newtonian Reflector
Sir Issac Newton developed a new type of reflecting telescope including a paraboloid primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. This was the most reasonable model or a telescope using mirrors at the time. It helped pave the way for more practical mirror telescopes. -
Cassegrain Telescope
Sieur Guillaume Cassegrain, a French sculptor, developed a telescope that uses a concave mirrror to recieve light and then focus on an object. It also allowed the eyepiece to be placed at the end of the tube. This design is still widely used today. -
Clock Driven Equatorial Mount
This is a mechanism that moves a mounted telescope along one axis so it will stay in sync with the moation of the celestial sky. This way astronomers can track the stars. This was developed by Robert Hooke -
James Short
A Scottish Instrument maker named James Short came up with the first parabolic and elliptic mirror for reflecting telescopes.This reduced the distortions of images by previous telescopes. He would eventually build more than 1,360 telescopes -
Chester Moore Hall
Chester was an English jurist as well as a mathematician. He invented a new type of lense called an achromatic lense. This lense was used to build a telescope free of color distortion. -
John Dollond
John industrialized the achromatic lense. It is un clear whether the idea was his or he borrowed it from Chester. Howver, he started a company the made them anyways. -
Jesse Ramsden
Ramsden was an English instrument maker. He developed a new eyepiece that reduced abberations. He also discovered how older telescopes had practical advantages. -
Birr Castle
Castsle built an optical telescope. It was the largest of his time. The reflecting telescope was 72 inches.
