Galileo Telescope Reaches 400th Anniversary

The telescope was the first instrument to extend human senses, revolutionising our view of the heavens and our place in the world.
Exactly 400 years ago on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer, mathematician, physicist and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants a new creation, a telescope, the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble.