When we raise our heads and look at the sky, we encounter a fascinating yet complex image, right? This confusion is actually only visible to the naked eye. When we look at it with a powerful telescope, we can clearly see that there are countless celestial bodies in infinite space, and each of them has unique details.
Well, thanks to whom and since when have we been able to see space like this, so who invented the telescope and when? Although we started to look into space with Galileo, it is not known exactly who the inventor of this device is. Because many people applied for the telescope patent at the same time and the government got a little confused. Let’s take a closer look at who invented the telescope and when, and get to know this simple but effective tool.
Who invented the telescope?
It is known that throughout history, scientists interested in astronomy made primitive telescopes and studied the sky by using unusual instruments with a number of systems. However, the first patent application for the telescope, which consists of lenses as we know it and shows the distance as close, was made in 1608 by Hans Lippershey, a Dutch eyeglass manufacturer.
The telescope invented by Hans Lippershey worked with a concave eyepiece aligned with a convex objective lens, making objects appear 3 times larger. But rumor has it that Lippershey stole the idea from Zacharias Jansen, an eyeglass manufacturer who also lived in the same town. Although there is no proven claim on this subject, it is said that both names played an equal role in the invention of the telescope.
As if things weren’t messy enough, Jacob Metius, a Dutchman, appeared in the same period. The government did not grant patents to either name, as Metius applied for a patent for a similar tool just weeks after Lippershey. Metius received a small prize, and Lippershey received a hefty payment for the manufacture of the telescope. So the winner was Hans Lippershey.
Unaware of all this, Galileo develops a telescope and gazes into space:
Galileo Galilei, whom we know as an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician, invented a telescope that showed objects 20 times larger in 1609, just one year after the first patent application for the telescope. When he presented the invention to the Venetian Senate, he was greatly admired and was appointed a lifetime lecturer at the University of Padua, doubling his salary.
Galileo was the first person to look into space with a telescope. Thanks to the telescope, he saw mountains and craters on the Moon, explored the Milky Way, marveled at Saturn’s rings, and discovered the four moons of Jupiter. All these things he saw were collected in his book The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World System, and he explained the Copernican planetary model.
Work on the telescope continues unabated:
We have learned from history that even if scientists are killed or imprisoned, scientific studies will not slow down. Studies on the telescope continued rapidly in other European cities. Johannes Kepler, who we know as a German scientist, mathematician and astrologer, designed a telescope with two convex lenses so that objects appear upside down.
Johannes Kepler wrote many articles about this telescope he developed and influenced many scientists of the period. Sir Isaac Newton, whom we know as a British physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, philosopher and theologian, is one of the scientists affected by these writings. Newton developed a reflecting telescope using mirrors in 1668, thinking that it was more appropriate to use mirrors for the telescope instead of lenses.
The modern telescope is invented:
Developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668 using mirrors, the reflecting telescope has been the most important instrument used in the study of astronomy for many years. However, over the years, it has not been enough for telescopes to provide images only by collecting light. How else could telescopes be used to provide all the data we need?
In 1897, a telescope with a 1-meter glass lens was developed at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, USA, but with little success. Later, in 1917, a 2.5-meter reflecting telescope was developed at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, USA. Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer, looked through this telescope and discovered that the Andromeda Nebula was actually much, much further away.
The invention of the radio assigned a new task to telescopes. Karl Jansky, an American engineer, detected radio signals from space for the first time in 1931, and radio telescopes were developed. Today, we can examine and analyze many data such as visible light, radio waves, infrared rays, x-rays, ultraviolet rays through telescopes. A device invented hundreds of years ago by an eyeglass manufacturer could only be used so efficiently.
