1. Optics Kathy Geise April 2007
Antique Telescopes
Optics
Kathy Geise
April 2007

2. Early History of the Telescope
Convex lenses to correct farsightedness were developed in the 14th century.
Concave lenses to correct nearsightedness were developed in the 15th century.
1608 Hans Lipperhey from the Netherlands applied for a patent for a device using two lenses to make distant objects look closer.
The same device was independently developed by Jacob Metius and Sacharias Jenssen.

3. Early History of the Telescope
By the early 1600s, spectacle lenses were widely available in Europe.
The lenses were usually made in Holland.
Spectacle lenses were sold by street vendors.
Galileo Galilei learned that someone in Holland used two lenses in a tube to make distant objects seem larger.
Galileo used a long focal length converging lens at the objective end and a short focal length diverging lens at the eye end.
Thus was born the Galilean telescope.

4. Hans Lipperhey
Hans Lipperhey and his patent application

5. Galileo Galilei Galileo improved the 3x telescope to magnify 20 times.
Portrait of Galileo by Guisto Susternans

6. Credits The Galileo Project http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/lipperhey.html