When was the Telescope Invented

Many people believe that Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to invent and build the telescope; however, the first telescope was made by Hans Lippershey in the early 1600s. Lipperhey was a German-Dutch glass maker, and he managed to reduce the amount of light in his telescope while focusing it. His model inspired other scientists to work on perfecting the telescope. It is easy to point to Hans Lipperhey as the inventor of the telescope, but the history of its invention is chaotic and confusing. Historians and scientists today still argue about who invented the telescope. Let’s take a look at the telescope and its impact on scientific history.

Meaning of Telescope

A telescope is a device used to form magnified images of distant objects. The telescope is undoubtedly the most important investigative tool in astronomy. It provides a means of collecting and analyzing radiation from celestial objects, even those in the far reaches of the universe.

Types of A Telescope

There are different types of telescopes, they are

• Refractor Telescope: The refractor telescope is likely what comes to mind when one thinks of a telescope. Just as its name suggests, a refractor telescope works by refracting, or bending, light in order to form an image.Many entry level refractor telescopes come on a simple to operate mount, known as an Alt-Azimuth mount, and make for great first telescopes. They also require little to no maintenance, making them ideal for those new to the field or who want something convenient and easy to set up. Refractors provide excellent colour contrast and thus are often used for looking at the moon and planets, especially refractors with a relatively high focal ratio (f/8 to f/10). Refractors with a low focal ratio (f/5) provide superb low magnification, wide field views of the night sky.
• Reflector Telescope: In contrast to the refractor telescope is the reflector telescope, invented by Sir Isaac Newton. Reflector telescopes work by utilising mirrors to reflect light that the telescope gathers to form an image at the eyepiece. Reflector telescopes are the most cost-effective telescopes available, as mirrors are much easier and more inexpensive to produce. As such, large aperture reflector telescopes can be manufactured for relatively far less than a refractor telescope of equal aperture. For those seeking to get the most out of their astronomy experience on a budget, a large aperture reflector telescope is the way to go. Modestly large, low f-ratio (f/5) reflectors also make excellent wide-field astrophotography telescopes.

Uses of a Telescope

Telescopes have come a long way since Galileo’s time. Now they tend to be huge devices; the most expensive cost hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. The reason astronomers keep building bigger and bigger telescopes is that celestial objects such as planets, stars, and galaxies—send much more light to Earth than any human eye (with its tiny opening) can catch, and bigger telescopes can detect fainter objects. If you have ever watched the stars with a group of friends, you know that there’s plenty of starlight to go around; each of you can see each of the stars. If a thousand more people were watching, each of them would also catch a bit of each star’s light. Yet, as far as you are concerned, the light not shining into your eye is wasted. It would be great if some of this “wasted” light could also be captured and brought to your eye. This is precisely what a telescope does.

The most important functions of a telescope are;

• It collect the faint light from an astronomical source.
• It focus all the light into a point or an image. Most objects of interest to astronomers are extremely faint: the more light we can collect, the better we can study such objects. (And remember, even though we are focusing on visible light first, there are many telescopes that collect other kinds of electromagnetic radiation.)

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