NATS 1745 Chapter 6: CHAPTER 6.docx
2 Apr 2013
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Two telescopes made by the great galileo. Mummified human finger pointing upwards from a glass dish. This finger is none other than galileo himself (middle finger of his right hand. Middle finger = rude gesture towards the church fathers who censored his words. He realized that these sky sights would change the way we understand the universe, autumn of 1609-1610. Image 132: galileo showing his visitors the sky with his telescope. 250 years prior to the telescope, a craftsman in venice began creating small discs of curved glass, that could improve vision, called lenses". The first lenses were convex, bulging at the centre. The second lenses were concave, thinner at the centre (short sight) By the year 1450, all the ingredients for the telescope existed. Well before galileo, the concept of the telescope was played with using curved mirrors. Thomas digges; english astronomer, mentioned his inventor father had something like a telescope. However the claims were too ambitious and impossible.
