On the 25th of August 2009 it was the anniversary of Galileo's telescope invention. It was to mark a point in history as we stepped from merely watching the skies with the naked eye to being able to delve deeper. Join me as we take a look at the history of telescopes, and Galileo.
Science exists for everything. Biology to look into living things, physics to look at the physical world, math to look at numbers, ecology to look at the systems of nature, and astronomy to look at the stars.
For a big portion of mans existence on this great planet, we have used our naked eye. We have looked and seen constellations and used imagination, but the naked eye is limited as it is designed for our immediate surroundings and not to look at objects that stand at a measure away from us measured in light years!
Inventors invented, they made great discoveries, however it was when a man by the name of Galileo Galilee came around to inventing his famous refractor telescope we know as Galileo's telescope that astronomy become a new and upgraded science.
The chief aim of a telescope is to do one thing and one thing only. That is to gather more light. You see your pupils' size determines how much light comes in. This amount of light that enters shows you the Moon as it is, it shows you constellations, but it doesn't show you an up close view of Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters or a close up of the rings of Saturn or the Red Spot on Jupiter.
What Galileo did was to use lenses to gather that light, and bring it into focus so it meets the pupil of the eye. Suddenly our eyes are bigger, can gather more light, and when we do, we see much more. This is the benefit of telescopes and we owe it to Galileo that he allowed us to learn so much more about what lies in space.
Galileo made his telescope with a series of lenses. These lenses have had major applications. People can see because they can wear spectacles and glasses and have images corrected so they can see. It has enabled the building of binoculars, and so much more.
A revolution was started or rather an evolution. We went from only peering into the unknown to be able to understand what these points of light really were.
We learnt what our Solar System contains, and what other places in our Galaxy and the universe contain. The refractor telescope is still in use today and is based on the method that Galileo found.
He found that using a series of lenses at the front of a tube and at the back could make us see far away objects much closer, thanks to the principle of gathering more light.
Since his invention Isaac Newton came and invented the reflecting telescope which uses lenses and mirrors, and the rest is history!
Today if you want to buy a telescope and get into backyard astronomy, you will come to find 2 major types. One is the refractor telescope, which is still in essence the same telescope that Galileo invented, and the other is the reflector telescope which Isaac Newton invented.
So when you are ready to buy a telescope or see a telescope in use or around, you can take great pride in knowing that the telescope was invented 400 years ago by a man called Galileo Galilee.
Interested in astronomy? Visit the following links and find out more about Galileo telescopes and discover astronomy. Find information about buying telescopes at the best telescope site!
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