Why was Galileo's telescope important?

What was the importance of Galileo's telescope? That's a good question, considering that Galileo wasn't the person who invented the telescope. But it was Galileo who made the instrument famous. He made the first three-powered spyglass in June or July 1609, presented an eight-powered instrument to the Venetian Senate in August, and turned a twenty-powered instrument to the heavens in October or November.You see, before Galileo's telescope came along, nobody had ever thought to use the device to look at the stars. With this simple telescope he observed the Moon, discovered four satellites of Jupiter, and resolved nebular patches into stars. He published Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610.

Verifying Galileo's discoveries was initially difficult if you did not have Galileo's telescope. In the spring of 1610 no one had telescopes of such quality and power to see the satellites of Jupiter, although many had weaker instruments with which they could see some of the lunar detail Galileo had described in Sidereus Nuncius. Galileo's lead was one of practice, not theory, and it took about six months before others could make or obtain instruments good enough to see Jupiter's moons. So I guess you could call Galileo the father of Astronomy. He was a forward thinker, and it was because of Galileo's telescope that advancements were made. Even so, with the verification of the phases of Venus by others, by the first half of 1611, Galileo's telescope had been copied by many others. The next discovery, sunspots, was made by several observers, including Galileo, independently.

How was it made?

Galileo’s telescope with which Jupiter's moons could be observed was made with a plano-convex objective (the lens toward the object) with a focal length of about 30 to 40 inches, and a plano-concave eyepiece with a focal length of about 2 inches. The eyepiece was in a small tube that could be adjusted for focusing. The objective lens was stopped down to an aperture of 0.5 to 1 inch. , and the field of view was about 15 arc-minutes (about 15 inches in 100 yards). The instrument's magnification was 15-20. The glass was full of little bubbles and had a greenish tinge (caused by the iron content of the glass); the shape of the lenses was reasonable good near their centers but poor near the periphery (hence the restricted aperture); the polish was rather poor. The limiting factor of this type of instrument was its small field of view--about 15 arc-minutes--which meant that only a quarter of the full Moon could be accommodated in the field. Over the next several decades, lens-grinding and polishing techniques improved gradually, as a specialized craft of telescope makers slowly developed. But although Galileo’s telescope, and variations of it, were made with higher magnifications, they were practically useless because of the small field of vision.

Better designs

As mentioned above, the telescopic effect can be achieved with different combinations of lenses and mirrors. As early as 1611, in his Dioptrice, Johannes Kepler had shown that a telescope could also be made by combining a convex objective and a convex ocular. He pointed out that such a combination would produce an inverted image but showed that the addition of yet a third convex lens would make the image erect again. This suggestion was not immediately taken up by astronomers, however, and it was not until Christoph Scheiner published his Rosa Ursina in 1630 that this form of telescope began to spread. In his study of sunspots, Scheiner had experimented with telescopes with convex oculars in order to make the image of the Sun projected through the telescope erect. 5 But when he happened to view an object directly through such an instrument, he found that, although the image was inverted, it was much brighter and the field of view much larger than in Galileo’s telescope. Since for astronomical observations an inverted image is no problem, the advantages of what became known as the astronomical telescope led to its general acceptance in the astronomical community by the middle of the century. Galileo's telescope could be used to view objects on earth as well as the sky. This was not true for the astronomical telescope with its inverted image. Astronomers eschewed the third convex lens (the erector lens) necessary for re-inverting the image because the more lenses the more optical defects multiplied. In the second half of the seventeenth century, therefore, the Galilean telescope was replaced for land viewing purposes by the "terrestrial telescope," which had four convex lenses: objective, ocular, erector lens, and a field lens (which enlarged the field of view even further).

Google Wears Galileo's telescope

Doodle 400th Anniversary of Galileo's Telescope

Galileo's telescope will be online on every google homepage

If you visit Google.com today, you will notice a special logo that looks like a telescope, It is a depiction of the Galileo's telescope .


Click the google logo to learn more about Nikola Tesla.


for more information visite:

http://galileos-telescope.blogspot.com/

Galileo's Telescope Travels Far, Sees Farther

Enlarge Melisa Goh/NPR

Franklin Institute's chief astronomer Derrick Pitts (right) points out details of Galileo's telescope to visitors.

Instruments of revolution can appear deceivingly simple. With a bit of wood, copper wire and paper, Galileo fashioned a telescope that opened the skies for discovery.

The telescope had a magnifying power of 20. By today's standards, that's not very strong, but in 1609, Galileo's telescope surpassed all others. It was powerful enough for him to detect the moon's rough surface, Venus' phases, and Jupiter's moons.

Galileo actually tracked and measured the movement of Jupiter's satellites. His observations gave further evidence of the Copernican theory that the sun was the center of the universe.

For the first time ever, Galileo's research telescope has traveled across the Atlantic. It's at the center of the exhibit, Galileo: The Medici and the Age of Astronomy at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The museum's chief astronomer, Derrick Pitts, says the research telescope symbolizes Galileo's "dogged determination" to understand the universe.

A clear case protects the telescope, but visitors can get close enough to brag that they have looked through Galileo's telescope. They won't see the night sky, however — the telescope points toward the museum's ceiling.

telescopes History , Galileo and telescope ,Galileo's telescope

The first inhabitants of the world were forced to examine their daily activities and annual change of light and darkness and cold and heat. In history there are few great men who made a great contribution to astronomy, one of them, Galileo Galilei and his work with the telescope was.

If you are looking at the telescopes of today, we mainly work with the telescope of Galileo or the other or a telescope of Newton. These men have such an impact in astronomy and telescopes, invented still the same types of telescopes for men, we do!

Full name of Galileo Galilei Galileo was an Italian physicist and astronomer. Galilei born in Pisa, February 15, 1564 and lived for 78 years until 1642, when he died. Right now he has made some progress in astronomy, we now know the name of Galileo.

Galileo has not only the advances in astronomy, it is noted with the invention of the thermometer! Telescope Galileo Galilei was the first observations of the moon and its growing, sun, planets and stars to make.

Most of the time of Galileo and energy was in mathematics and he spent the most time. In fact, he became professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1589. What did Galileo was switched from mathematics and physics at a major interest in astronomy, when he heard the telescope in the Netherlands in 1609.

Ever since Galileo immediately focused his attention on building his own telescope. Galileo Galilei telescope was developed, and immediately began to see in the sky. He published his results in Starry Messenger. The Starry Messenger one years later, in 1610. The book was a feeling across Europe, he made his famous telescope.

Galileo Galilei, the telescope and its conclusions are not always so rosy, however. At this point, the common idea was decided upon by the Church, that the universe revolved around the earth! Copernicus had a new theory, the Copernican theory holds that the universe does not revolve around the earth. Galileo had this belief as well, and he had a big scandal with the church. The church declared that Galileo was considered heretical and instructed to abandon the Copernican theory.

In 1632 published a book entitled Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. In the book Galileo Galilei telescope was used to show how the concept was borne from the church wrong. He led Galileo to be sentenced to life imprisonment. The conviction was overturned and arrest for the rest of his life building.

Galileo was a great inventor and has given the world some of the greatest inventions. In a telescope, Galileo Galilei, the light enters through a tube with a front convex lens. The light is still a concave lens in the eyepiece focus, before meeting his eyes with an enlarged portion and vertically.

Galileo Galilei is a telescope that we can never forget. It was an invention which has in its time a planet (Saturn shown), who has ears! Within 2 years of the telescope by Galileo, it gives us very precise information about the orbits of 4 satellites of Jupiter. Galileo also gave us good information about sunspots on the sun.

Galileo’s refracting telescope (1609)

Get to the root of it

Galileo’s refracting telescope (1609)

Galileo’s refractor used two lenses to concentrate the light from celestial objects, delivering more light to the human eye than it can gather on its own. The light was refracted through a spherical lens, forming an image.

The spherical shape of Galileo’s primary lens made the images blurry. The lens also split light into colors, creating a fringe of color around bright objects.