Great Astronomers and their Telescopes

Famous Astronomers & Telescopes

The Telescope has a four hundred year history and in this time there have been a lot of astronomers and telescope makers who have built telescopes, made discoveries and advanced astronomy in remarkable ways. These links are to articles written on this website about many of these famous people. This is a list that is being added to over time. If you want a brief overview of the timeline of the telescope, see below.

Tycho Brahe

Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer who died 400 years ago, is still relatively unknown to most people today. Nonetheless, his planetary observations and other celestial discoveries helped pave the way scientific breakthroughs that helped to shape our understanding of the world as we know it — and his private life was equally intriguing.

Considered to be the greatest astronomer without a telescope. He made careful and accurate measurements of the stars, built several observatories that were like palaces and discovered the first Super Nova. read more

William Herschel

He was the Kings astronomer in the 18th century and both he and his sister caroline made remarkable discoveries with telescopes that he made. He made over 400 telescopes and he also made a telescope that was 49 inches in diameter and for 50 years it was the largest telescope in the world.

He was an avid amateur astronomer but this turned to a full time profession when he discovered the planet Uranus on March 13th, 1781. This brought him a lot of fame and is how he became the Kings Astronomer. read more

James Gregory

He was a 17th century mathematician and astronomer and he designed the first practical reflecting telescope. The design of his telescope is named after him as “The Gregorian” and it still sees limited use today.

James Gregory is credited as having designed the first practical Reflecting telescope. It is named after him: “The Gregorian Telescope” and it still sees some limited use in today’s world. read more

Sir Isaac Newton

He built the first practical telescope in the famous style called “The Newtonian” and this style of telescope is still used today because it is inexpensive, easy to make and easy to use.

The actual telescope that Newton built still survives today and is in the care of the Royal Society of London. They keep it on display in London and sometimes it travels the world as part of an exhibit. read more

Galileo

He didn’t invent the telescope but he did turn his telescope and his thoughts to the night sky. This changed the world!

Galileo challenged conventional views of the universe by observing by observing objects in the sky then applying the laws of mathematics and logic to what he saw. He turned the telescope into an important tool of understanding the universe we live in. read more

Huyghens

He was a contemporary of Galileo who greatly improved upon Galileos design for refractor telescopes. He built some massively long telescopes that were as much as 120 feet. His understanding of optics helped him make these telescopes and he used them to make new discoveries in the universe.

He had a deep understanding of astronomy, optics, mathematics and mechanical devices. And he built some of the largest telescopes of the 17 th century. read more

Johannes Kepler

Astronomer, Mathematician and Optician. He created a new type of telescope and his three laws changed our understanding of how planets revolve around the sun.

He is also the inventor of the Keplerian Telescope which was a distinct improvement over the Galilean telescope. Keplers telescope used a convex lens at the eyepiece rather than a concave one. This gave the telescope a greater field of vision and better eye relief but it did necessitate a longer focal length.

Lord Rosse

He made the largest telescope of the 19th century and it still stands at the castle today. It is called The Leviathan of Parsons town. His contribution to astronomy was more practical than mathematical but among these were of course the contribution to the general field of telescope making and of special note were drawings and observations of nebulae and galaxies. He was the first to resolve various night sky objects to the point where they could be seen as spiral galaxies or distinct nebulae.

Edwin Hubble

An astronomer and cosmologist who proved that the universe was a lot bigger than previously thought. The famous Hubble space telescope isn’t his! It’s just named after him. No modern astronomer made a more profound contribution to our understanding of the cosmos than did Edwin Hubble, who first conclusively demonstrated that the universe is expanding.

Origins of the Telescope

The origins of who invented the telescope may be lost to time but conventional wisdom, with supporting records, generally lends credence to the first telescope maker as being a Dutch spectacle maker named Hans Lippershey. In 1608 he applied for a patent for a telescope and the story goes that his son was tinkering around with lenses and held one near his eye and one at arms length – thus the telescope was born.

But some new detective work has brought to light an even earlier record of telescopes. A recently uncovered will shows a brass decorated telescope among the objects given by Don Pedro de Carolona to his widow in Barcelono in 1593. And this predates the Lippershey patent by 15 years. This isn’t proof that Don Pedro invented the telescope, it is just a record showing us that he had one.

This was investigated by a British historian Nick Pelling. He found a Spanish text from 1959 that refers to research by an optometrist called Jose Maria Simon de Guilleuma who investigated claims that a Spanish spectacle maker called Roget invented the first telescope. Simon examined wills of people in the area of Barcelona and the earliest mention of a telescope was the 1593 bequeathment of Don Pedro to his widow. Simon also found a record of a telescope belonging to a Catalan merchant Jaime Galvany. It was sold in auction in 1608.

So, the mystery of the origins of the telescope continues! Who knows, maybe we will continue to find earlier and earlier references to the remarkable instrument.

Earlier claims to the invention of the telescope:

• In Napes a man named Giobvanni Battista della Porta describes the telescope in his 1593 book entitled: De Refractione.
• A Florentine named Rafael Gualterotti stated that he built a spyglass in 1590
• A Spanish book by Milanes Girolamo Sirtori releated

Telescope Timeline