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A Starting Point
The first telescope was invented by a Dutch eyeglass maker, Hans Lippershey. He thought of the idea after noticing his two children make a weather vane appear larger and clearer through two lenses. He called it, "kijker," in Dutch, which meant looker. -
Taking it a bit further
Italian Physicist, Galileo Galilei, makes his own and discovers many things such as sunspots on the sum. and the four largest moons of Jupiter. -
Improving the Lenses
Chester Moore Hall creates a lens that reduces chromatic aberration even further. The lens was made out of two types of glass called crown and flint. This proved Newton's law, about chromatic aberration and that it could not be solved, was incorrect. -
Giant Telescopes
William Herschel builds a gigantic 12 meter Newtonian based reflector telescope. It was the first of the giant reflector telescopes. -
Parsons' Spiral was Spotted
William Parsons built, "Leviathan Of Persons town" at Birr Castle in Ireland. Persons was the first person to see spiral arms on a galaxy. -
Seeing Waves
Following the discoveries of Karl Jansky, Grote Reber invents a whole new telescope called the radio telescope. This instrument enables us to see radio waves we cannot see with just our eyes. -
More Big Telescopes
The Gran Telescopio Canarias is built on the island La Palma in the Canary Islands of Spain 7,438 feet above sea level. It is the largest telescope of our time.
