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 ...

The journey of astronomical telescopes began in the early 17th century when Galileo Galilei crafted his first refracting ...

and it gets its name from the leader of the ancient Roman gods. Even though it had been observed in the sky since prehistory, it wasn’t until Galileo came along with his trusty telescope that ...

Second, you soon want a bigger telescope. Galileo, who first trained a telescope on the night sky 400 years ago this fall, pioneered this two-step program. First, he marveled at what he could see.