Hans Lippershey, German-Dutch Telescope Pioneer

Hans Lippershey (1570 - September 1619) was a German-Dutch lensmaker, associated with the invention of the telescope. The the earliest written record of a refracting telescope, was a patent he filed in 1608, to the States General of the Netherlands for his instrument for seeing things far away as if they were nearby, a few weeks before another Dutch instrument-maker's patent, Jacob Metius. He failed to receive a patent since the same claim for invention had also been made by other spectacle-makers, but he was rewarded by the Dutch government for copies of his design. There are many stories as to how Lippershey came by his invention. One version has him observing two children playing with lenses in his shop and commenting how they could make a far away weather-vane seem closer when looking at it through two lenses. His original instrument consisted of either two convex lenses with an inverted image or a convex objective and a concave eyepiece lens so it would have an upright image. This image has been color enhanced

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