Telescopes and Detectors
Telescopes and the Discovery of the Universe
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Galileo's Telescopes

In 1609, Galileo saw a telescope made by a Dutch spectacle maker. He immediately began making his own. His telescopes were simple arrangements of two lenses held apart by wooden tubes, a metre or so long.

When Galileo tied his primitive telescopes to a pole and looked at things in the night sky, he made the remarkable discoveries for which he is still famous today.

Galileo is famous because:

  1. he made his own telescopes
  2. he was the first person to make a telescope
  3. he invented the modern telescope
  4. he studied stars and planets with a telescope
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High resolution view

Two of Galileo's telescopes tied to an observing pole. Mounted in the ornate frame below is an objective lens from one of Galileo's telescopes. It is about 50 mm in diameter. Project Galileo, Rice University