Galileo's Instruments of Discovery

With these various instruments, Galileo Galilei was able to look into space and change our view of the universe.

  • By Sarah Zielinski
  • Smithsonian.com, July 20, 2009
1 of 13 |

Galileo telescope

(Franklin Institute)


Galileo's Telescope

Galileo’s telescope anchors the exhibit “Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy,” which is at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia until September 7, 2009. Though Galileo didn’t invent the telescope (Dutch opticians did), he improved upon it. The first telescope used a combination of two lenses within a tube, and it could magnify items by three times, but showed them upside down. But when Galileo constructed his own telescope in 1609, he added a third lens. His telescope magnified items by eight times and showed them right side up. Over the following years, Galileo built several telescopes, including one that would magnify items by a factor of 30.

1 of 13 |





 

Add New Comment


Name: (required)

Email: (required)

Comment:

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until Smithsonian.com has approved them. Smithsonian reserves the right not to post any comments that are unlawful, threatening, offensive, defamatory, invasive of a person's privacy, inappropriate, confidential or proprietary, political messages, product endorsements, or other content that might otherwise violate any laws or policies.

Comments (9)

i love this

its really amazing i want to know about how Galileo made his telescope What is the instruction for building the Telescope

Its Nice!!!!

It is called a sector.

DORKL,

Greetings. It's called Galileo's Geometric & Milatary Compass.

HEY WHAT IS THIS CALLED EXZACTLY???????? I REALLY WANT TO KNOW SO I CAN DO MY PROJECT FOR SCIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

man if u can help me i really need to know how u make the compas is for a work in the class

Amateurs interested in astronomy are often told to star with a decent pair of binoculars which are usually about 7 to 10 powers of magnification. It's easy to see how Galileo was able to make his discoveries with a telescope of about the same power.

compliments.. bulent sisman



Advertisement



Galileo telescope Galileo armillary sphere Galileo astronomical ring dial Galileo nocturnal and sundial Galileo nocturnal and horary disk Galileo astrolabe Galileo navicula dial Galileo geometric and military compass Galileo triangulation instrument Galileo graphometer Galileo geometrical square Galileo telescopic theodolite

Follow Us

Advertisement