Thread by @hfalcke

Today I had the honor to reveal a beautiful statue of Hans Lipperhey in the Abbey of Middelburg during a little ceremony. „Who?“ you may ask. Well, this craftsman actually invented the „Dutch perspective glass“ that Galileo used to revolutionize astronomy & we now call telescope.

We all remember Galileo, the academic, but tend to forget the craftsman that made all this possible. Every breakthrough in astronomy is based on better telescopes and better observations. That’s why instrumentmakers are so important in our field!

How well is Hans Lippershey’s role as inventor of the telescope established, you may ask. Pretty well by now. He presented his invention to Prince Maurice in The Hague in the presence of a Spanish general and other diplomats and news spread very quickly through Europe.

Prince Maurice gave Lipperhey a sizeable amount of money that was enough to become affluent, but he was denied a patent. The military value was immediately recognized, but Maurice was in peace negotiations, so he shared this information freely even with his worst enemy.

The principle of the telescope is simple, but details make all the difference. E.g. lenses were not good enough over their entire dimension. So, Lipperhey used a diaphragm to block outer parts. When Maurice asked for a telescope for 2 eyes, he built it within short time.

Lipperhey was an immigrant from Germany- he was drawn to the boomtown Middelburg, which was well connected by see trade and had a leading glass and lense fabrication industry.

The statue and the ceremony were made possible by the fantastic and enthusiastic team of the amateur astronomer in Middelburg of Phillippus Lansbergen lansbergen.net

They also run a little museum in Middelburg Zeeland that you can visit twice a week in the summer. lansbergen.net and which has a collection of old telescopes and some information about Lipperhey.

Here is the translation of an early 17th century newsletter from the embassy of Siam reporting the meeting of Spanish general Spinola & Dutch Prince Maurice negotiating a 12 year truce and getting a demonstration of the first telescope by the pious spectacle-maker Hans Lipperhey

Interesting to note, that within a year after the successful public demonstration of the telescope by Lipperhey in The Hague it was talked about, sold and used throughout Europe. Also astronomers used the Dutch/Flemish invention. Not just Galileo!

Christoph Schreiner, a German Jesuit, was the first to publish the discovery of sun spots in Nov 1611 www2.hao.ucar.edu/Education/Famo… - he and Galileo didn’t get along very well. With bitter accusations going both ways.

British Mathematician and Astronomer Thomas Harriot was the first to actually detect the sunspots and made a map of the moon July 1609 - so even before Galileo, but failed to publish it widely de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ha…

Simon Marius discovered the moons of Jupiter only one day (!) after Galileo (who then attacked Marius heavily personally), but their names (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) are those given to them by Marius! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Mar…

David and Johannes Fabricus, Father and son, also discovered sunspot in 1611 from Frisia in the north of Germany, where David served as pastor - they corresponded with Kepler.

Thanks to my colleague Frank Verbunt for providing that list.

This little instrument maker paved the way with his successful demonstration and then astronomers around Europe used and improved it quickly. Lipperhey pointed out that one can use it to look at the stars, likely looked himself, but didn’t have any knowledge to interpret it.