Captain's Chrome Spyglass 15"

While glass lenses were being perfected for spectacles throughout Europe, the first mention of using such concave and convex lenses for a spyglass telescope were made in 1589. Giambattista della Porta makes mention of a theoretical device stating “…to make glasses that can recognize a man several miles away,” with both a concave and convex lens together “to see both things afar off, and things near hand.” Following this natural progression, the first spyglass telescope was created by spectacle makers in the Netherlands. In 1608 Hans Lippershay became the first person to apply for a patent on the spyglass telescope, though his patent was rejected. Simply hearing of this device, Galileo crafted his own design, and at a 1609 demonstration, presented Venetian senators with a device that allowed them to view the sails of ships approaching off the coast a full two hours before they were visible with the naked eye.  It was this device that first became called a telescope, from the Greek ‘tele’ for ‘far’, and ‘skopein’ for ‘to look or see.’ Named by a Greek scientist at the convention the teleskopos was born. Within a year Galileo had created a telescope capable of much higher magnification, becoming the first person to discover the moons of Jupiter, sun spots, and the hills and valleys of the moon. As a precursor to marine telescopes, this antique brass spyglass forever changed history.