Fun Facts about Telescopes

FUN FACT 1: Galileo is often created as the inventor of the telescope when in fact he was simply the first to use it to study the night sky.

• The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s, by using glass lenses. They found use in both terrestrial applications and astronomy.
• The inventor is called Hans Lippershey.
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Picture from Wikipedia

FUN FACT 2: The word telescope is derived from Greek words meaning “far” and “to look and see”.

• from the Ancient Greek τῆλε, tele “far” and σκοπεῖν, skopein “to look or see”; τηλεσκόπος, teleskopos “far-seeing”

FUN FACT 3: The reflecting telescope was invented by Isaac Newton

• Isaac Newton was one of an elite group of individuals considered to have possessed one of the greatest scientific minds in history.
• The first reflecting telescope built by Isaac Newton in 1668 is a landmark in the history of telescopes, being the first known successful reflecting telescope.
• Newton made this telescope to study optics, not to observe the sky.
• Although other scientists would have to improve Newton’s design before these types of telescopes became popular, today we still call them Newtonian reflectors, after their creator.

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  Picture from Optics & Binoculars

FUN FACT 4: Most all telescopes have the ability to detect some type of electromagnetic waves.

• Most detect electromagnetic radiation, but there are major differences in how astronomers must go about collecting light (electromagnetic radiation) in different frequency bands.
• Telescopes may be classified by the wavelengths of light they detect: X-ray telescopes, Ultraviolet telescopes, Optical telescopes, Infrared telescopes, Submillimetre telescopes, Fresnel Imager and X-ray optics.
• There are three main optical types:

Picture from NZ Telescopes