Galileo was one of the first to use his telescope for scientificpurposes. Lipperhey and Janssen were craftsmen, not scientists. Initially, telescopes were only used for military purposes. Galileo, however, pointed his telescope toward the stars and planets, and discovered four bright moons around Jupiter. Already in 1610, he published his first observations in his book "Sidereus Nuncius". These discoveries were a huge sensation at that time! This is the reason why Galileo is still well known today.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the first telescope. But it is known that the "Dutch viewer" consisted of a convex and a concave lens. The initial magnifications were around 3 or 4 times. The tube of the viewer was mainly made of paper and was covered with leather on the outside. The oldest known Dutch picture can be found in a book by Jacob Cats (the "Zeeusche nachtegael") published in 1623.

A telescope or distanceviewer is an optical instrument which makes distant objects appear closer or larger. The name telescope is Greek and literally means "distance viewer". The term was devised by Prince Frederick Sesi during a demonstration by Galileo Galilei in Venice in 1611.

There are a number of people that claimed the invention, but the oldestevidence points to Johannes (Hans) Lipperhey. He applied for a patent in 1608. The demonstration of the distanceviewer that he gave for Prince Maurits of the Netherlands was very well documented.

It is true that people have grinded lenses for a pair of eyeglasses since the middle ages. However, the quality of the lenses was not very good. Some people experimented with combining lenses, but a clear, sharp, and magnified image was not obtained. In the golden age, Middelburg was the second city of the Netherlands after Amsterdam in terms of trade. All kinds of outside influences entered the city though the harbour. One could say that the best glass from Venice and the best grinding techniques from Germany came together in Middelburg in the beginning of the 17th century. Therefore, the local opticians had the best materials and techniques available. Moreover, the oldest glass factory of the Northern Netherlands was also situated in Middelburg at that time. So good glass was not hard to get. Also the use of the lens opening probably aided the development of the telescope.

The telescope was invented in Middelburg, The Netherlands in 1608. Although lenses had been combined before, it never resulted in a useful instrument. Only after 1608, telescopes became generally available.

Until the beginning of the 17th century, people believed (partly becauseof the church) that the earth was the centre of the universe and that mankind was the crown on God's creation. Scientist questioned this belief already for some time, because the orbits of the planets were not consistent with geostatic theories. It nearly took until the second half of the 17th century before the majority of the scientific community accepted that the earth revolves around the sun. The invention of the telescope gave scientists like Galileo Galilei the opportunity to prove that sun was in the centre of our solar system. The crescent of Venus, for example, can only be explained if the planet revolves around the sun. We can safely say that the invention of the telescope had a profound influence on mankind, just like the invention of the art of printing.

Unfortunately, the houses of Lipperhey and Janssen no longer exist. Thehouse of Janssen was situated on the "Groenmarkt", just in between two buttresses of the church. It was probably already torn down in the 17th or 18th century. Nowadays, the former location of the house of Janssen is marked with a commemorative stone. The first house of Lipperhey, the "Amandel Bale" was in the "Kapoenstraat" and had to make place for a neo-Gothic extension of the church in the 19th century. His second house, which stood right next to his first house, was destroyed by the German bombardment on May 17th, 1940. Lipperhey could buy this house, named "the three distant views", because of his profitable agreement with Prince Maurits to build three telescopes.