(For more on the controversy Galileo spawned, see His Big Mistake.) Building a better refractor The spyglass-turned-telescope had limitations, some of which Galileo was able to design around.

The investigation of light and optical properties stretches back centuries, at least to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Mesopotamians. In fact, even artificial lenses date back to as early as ...

Galileo precedes today’s physicists by many generations, but his work underscores the interplay of intellect and observation ...

Evidence suggests ancient civilizations, including the Greeks, may have had early optical knowledge and devices like ...

3 min read The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to free astronomers of a limitation that has plagued them since the days of Galileo—Earth's atmosphere. Shifting air pockets in the atmosphere ...

PhotoPhoto of the Sun in hydrogen-alpha light. The giant planet Jupiter, whose large moons Galileo discovered with his "trouble-making" telescope, is more than 5 times farther from the Sun than ...

Learn about the life and scientific contributions of Johannes Kepler, the 17th-century astronomer known for his laws of ...

Even though it had been observed in the sky since prehistory, it wasn’t until Galileo came along with his trusty telescope that more was found out about it. In fact, what he saw surrounding the ...

Saturn has been playing second fiddle to Mars all year, but in June the red planet fades while the ringed planet reaches its pinnacle. Saturn’s rings are now very favorably tilted for ...

In 1609, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei upended the Earth ... into his system a location that he has selected to shoot. His telescope, set up on his deck, aligns automatically with Polaris ...

Galileo made himself one of the world's first telescopes and discovered the moons ... the Church forced him to recant his views in front of a tribunal, and sentenced him to house arrest.