Human beings, by their very nature, have always possessed a great curiosity about the mysteries of life. Everything they see, hear, or touch generates questions that need to be answered by logic, leading them to experiment with things in order to gain a perfect interpretation of what is or is not before their eyes. Hence, the creation of the Galilean reflecting telescope.
Because of this, inventions emerged that revolutionized human life, helping us understand its mysteries. The invention of the Galileo reflecting telescope is a prime example . Its initial development began with a graphic sketch outlining the components, its construction, and its intended function.
Well, every technological invention originates from a diagram that helps the person visualize what they want to create; throughout history this has been proven, because the first steps are always taken with those blueprints. Telescopes have advanced significantly since then.
Following this order of ideas, Galileo was a fearless, curious, extroverted man who thought of the illogical to make it cognitive, he sought explanations where there were none, with the intention of evolving human knowledge, for him, seeing beyond his eyes , was what made him excited to show the generation the verification of the theories of the other scientists who preceded him.
It was there that he sought to answer questions such as: What is the moon like? Do other planets exist? What are stars like? and many more. He realized that glass or crystals somehow magnified light, and knowing how to use them allowed him to see from short to long distances. Based on this, he conceived the idea of enhancing its composition to see at long distances. In this case, his challenge would be to observe the moon from Earth, but with a high-capacity instrument, thus giving rise to the Galileo reflecting telescope.
What is a telescope and what is it used for?
It is an indispensable tool that, through its optical lenses and concave mirrors, allows the visualization of distant objects in greater detail than is visible to the naked eye, thus offering a magnified image of the object in question. Astronomers use it to observe the sky and capture celestial bodies with greater clarity in the presence of electromagnetic radiation reflected by the instrument's glass lens. There are different types of telescopes that serve various purposes.
Furthermore, four hundred years ago the Galileo reflecting telescope was born , which helped to redefine our place in the universe, since its creation shook and altered society from its roots, becoming the boom of the history of humanity that would help to contemplate extraordinary things of the galaxy, from there, the invention was the step for the generation of new studies that would contribute to the knowledge of the unexplored that became accessible to people.
This allowed us to raise our eyes to the sky and perceive the majestic opportunity that would open before us, helping us understand that we were the center of creation, and there were reasons for this: from our perspective, everything seems to revolve around the Earth (but perhaps everything revolves around us). Galileo's contributions to the understanding of the cosmos are crucial.
For this reason, when someone dared to challenge this notion of the world, their voice was silenced by the religious powers, since nothing can leave the field of the visible, the comfort zone, because to go beyond what we know is to break the rules of tranquility and generate anomalies, phenomena that should not be discovered, but all this lasted until, between 1608 and 1609, the blindfold was removed.
In other words, the scientist Galileo presented an invention he called the Galilean reflecting telescope , which contributed to the observation of the moon, celestial bodies (stars), and the rotating rocks of molecular mass with atoms and protons called planets. This device marked an extraordinary leap forward in the evolution of the two-lens tube known as a "telescope."
Telescope Design, Function, and Controversy
Galileo's telescope design is based on a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece lens. Based on this, another scientist wanted to contribute to the improvement of this device and in 1611 the German Johannes Kepler was the first to use two convex lenses that focused the rays on the same point, which allowed an excellent improvement in the process.
Getting back to the topic, Galileo turned to the powers of knowledge, to the verification of the unknown, to his idealism of "seeing is believing", showing humanity what for him was real, thus revealing the existence with evidence of the moons of Jupiter and the ears of Saturn.
Likewise, it caused great controversy in its time, especially in religions, because «The main purpose of the Church is not to determine how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven, because at the time the human being will die and his soul where will he go”, he told the prelates. What Galileo did with the telescope was too daring, because his purpose and his ideal, which he rigorously defended, caused him to end his days under house arrest and intellectually forgotten.
However, his legacy would not be hidden forever, because in the year that Galileo died, the child who would complete his revolution was born, this child was "Isaac Newton" he gave us a new image of the universe that survived 250 years, then continued the continuity to "Einstein." One of the phrases that endure in the time of these (monsters of science) in a good way is: "If I have managed to see further it has been because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."
The legacy of an inheritance
Galileo's legacy was the investigations discovered and revealed to the world. Later Newton improved the invention of the reflecting telescope, which is the main one we know today. The improvement to the stethoscope was to use mirrors instead of lenses to focus light and form images. Then the universe opened up to us in all its splendor. Thus allowing to see into the past and driving towards the future, to know and reveal what had not been discovered at that time.
Furthermore, the study of planets, stars, the universe, and other celestial bodies is called astronomy. It's the science of going beyond what is visible to the naked eye, exploring the unexplored, and understanding what is currently indefensible. In other words, the further we look, the deeper we delve into the past. Universities today offer programs to study astronomy and continue this legacy.
Now, what Galileo initiated will have a great continuity of improvement; he was the driving force behind the discovery of mysteries and the solution to illogicalities, which gave rise to the astronomical technology we know today.
In a way, the Galileo reflecting telescope was a main base for the studies of the scientists who would come after it.