galileo's telescope
Created: 1609
Creator: Galileo Galilei Location: Italy Stats: Lens: 37mm (diameter) Light Collecting Area: 1075mm Light Gathering Power: 55x human eye Focal Length: 980mm Focal Ratio: f/26 Wavelength: Optical Type: Refractor |
History:
Galileo's first telescope was based on designs for spyglasses created by Dutch opticians in 1608. His telescope was made out of wood and leather. The 37mm main lens was convex while the eyepiece was concave like in the original Dutch specification. However, Galileo was able to boost the magnification factor of the original design by more than 8 times. Galileo's refinement was so impressive that he was granted a pay raise and tenure as a professor of mathematics. Amongst the most notable discoveries Galileo made with his new instrument was that the moon was not a perfect sphere but rather had a mountainous surface. The telescope also allowed Galileo to cement his theory that the solar system was not geocentric. By observing that Venus had moon-like phases when viewed from Earth, he was able to conclude that the earth had to orbit around the sun. Galileo and his telescope were also responsible for the discovery that Jupiter had three moons that orbited around it. This lent further credence to the theory that not every galactic body orbited around the Earth. |