The Fascinating Journey Towards Making of the first telescope In the History Of Mankind
April 19, 2008
Have you ever wondered how did the first telescope come into existence? Who was the person behind inventing the first ever telescope? Though the modern day telescope is a wonderful instrument that gives people an insight view of the celestial bodies, it is but the end result of a long and glorious journey towards making the first ever telescope. As you know that glass was discovered by chance and that too a thousands of years age. This discovery was a milestone in the history of the telescope. After the discovery of glass it took thousands of years for man to shape the glass into lens that was necessary for a telescope. And this making of lens was yet another milestone that man achieved in the history of the telescope. The man who first made it possible to use the telescope lived in Holland and he was the person who made it available to all mankind.
This was not the end of the making of the telescope, but after the first telescope many changes were made and one after one many a milestones were covered and finally the most famous Italian scientist by the name of Galileo Galilee made a history in the making and using of the telescope. This Italian scientist was the first person to use the telescope for the study of skies i.e., the study of the celestial bodies like the stars and the planets and this was yet another milestone that man had achieved. This Italian scientist is probably the first person or says the first astronomer who made many significant scientific discoveries in the field of astronomy. He used his knowledge and telescope to continue the important milestones in the history of the telescope when he viewed celestial bodies with this device.
After having discovered many a planets and after having used the telescope for viewing the celestial bodies with this device, people were fascinated as the history of the telescope continued with a more and more determined interest to know the heavenly bodies.
This young Italian scientist Galileo viewed the craters on the moon, planets and sunspots in his studies. Galileo was also able to see that the Milky Way was made up of stars. But then Galileo knew that though this phase of telescope was making history but then there were some limitations also with the telescope that he had put to use for viewing the heavenly bodies and the limitation was that, he could see only a portion of the moon at any one time as man was still trying to rectify this problem because at this juncture the telescope looked like a opera glass and the viewing was limited. After this another scientist by the name of Sir Isaac Newton made yet another staggering discovery with a change in the design of the telescope and that was that he designed the telescope based on the use of a curved mirror that provided the user a closer observation of the heavenly bodies not one at a time but with a larger coverage area.
And as you very well know that it was because of these two great men who made significant contributions to the development of the telescope. The modern telescope is the result of these brilliant, gifted men and their imagination. There are now small telescopes that people can use in their homes to view the moon, stars and the planets. There are now very powerful telescopes that can view far into the heavens to reveal great information about these celestial bodies. Great observatories are manned by brilliant astronomers who follow in the footsteps of these pioneers.
Summary:
The history of the making of the telescope is indeed a great achievement in the story of the development of mankind and the credit goes to the two great scientists Galileo and Sir. Isaac Newton. It is because of these two; today man is able to study the universe and the celestial objects that are far away from the earth.
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