MORE than 400 years ago, in 1608, Hans Lipperhey, a German-Dutch spectacle maker, applied for a patent for a telescope that he said could magnify objects threefold.
Within a few months, the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei had improved the design and used his new instrument to make discoveries that would eventually change our understanding of the world.
Galileo was born in Pisa, Tuscany, on 15 February 1564. Today, he is referred to as the father of observational astronomy.
Galileo established modern astronomy through his telescopic observations of Earth’s moon, phases of Venus, moons around Jupiter, sunspots, and the fact that the Milky Way consists of countless individual stars.
Humanity has