Nothing is the bridge between the future and the further future. Nothing is certainty. Nothing is any definition of anything.

— Peter Hammill

International Year of Astronomy

17th-century Brueghel paintings trace the early, mysterious history of the telescope

Submitted by kuky on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 8:38pm.

Thanks to the much-heralded International Year of Astronomy, this much we know: Galileo used a telescope to observe the moon in 1609. But the inventor of the revolutionary resolutionary device remains unknown, and its early history is muddied by simultaneous discoveries and competing claims.

Submitted by myamiphil on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 9:07pm.

Galileo wasnt the first to have or use a telescope, but the first to put it towards the heavens and make use of it for studies in astronomy

The attached power point file offers a great explanation of the evolution of the early use of the telescope.