Which scope to take to Galileo? (1 Viewer)

Having read and enjoyed the book Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, I often think when peering through my FSIII how fortunate we are to live in an age where we have such fine optical instruments at our disposal. Galileo ground his own lenses by trial and error. If memory serves me his first objectives were only about an inch in diameter. The 20x or so image from his telescope would have suffered all sorts of terrible aberrations as well as being upside down and inverted. Yet he won orders for dozens of his scopes from the navy and all were impressed with his optical wonders!! So my question is, if you could go back and visit Galileo for a weekend, which scope would you take?
I would take my Nikon FSIII and three eyepieces, 20X, 30X and 40X. I would explain that I could have brought bigger and better but I felt this represented state of the art opticall and mechanical engineering that was within financial reach of the common man. I would take great joy in watching his reaction as he gazed for the first time through a modern scope.
Next time you are out and about with your scope, think of Galileo and his reaction if he could see what you are seeing! :eek!:

I've often thought the same thing. Its too bad the science giants of yesteryear can't see what's been found out since they passed.

But I would think one of the astronomical scopes might be better suited for Galileo. Maybe the astro folks could recommentd one of the cats, reflectors or refractors.

Of course there's always the Hubble.

tallgrass said:

Next time you are out and about with your scope, think of Galileo and his reaction if he could see what you are seeing! :eek!:

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I don't even have to go back that far, mentally. I still recall just what a giant step it was (albeit much smaller than what you suggest) when I had my first look through a Leica Apo-Televid77 when it had come out. And that was merely a step up from a 60mm Bausch&Lomb balscope that had served me well for decades! Yes, we are really lucky nowadays, all the pros and cons are peanuts compared to what we had available just a bit more than a decade or so back.

Robert

Swissboy said:

Yes, we are really lucky nowadays, all the pros and cons are peanuts compared to what we had available just a bit more than a decade or so back.

Robert

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I wonder what we will be looking through in another ten years, or even 20 years? Will optical advancements realise a way to overcome objective size limitations? What I mean to say is an increase in light gathering capability without increasing the overall objective/scope size/weight? Today’s scopes are surely at the limit of their optical mechanical perfection? Any improvements we are currently seeing are minimal. As one contributor in another thread put it 'No matter which scope you buy today, you cannot go very wrong.' or words to that effect. Meaning that competition is so fierce that all scopes today offer a a very high level of performance (dollar for dollar that is). Interesting times lay ahead for us!!

I'm also amazed at what scientists of that era could discover...
but just think how amazed the typical dad of today would be to receive
a letter beginning "Most Illustrious Lord Father"...

tallgrass said:

Next time you are out and about with your scope, think of Galileo and his reaction if he could see what you are seeing! :eek!:

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An even better thought for me is that I won't be excommunicated and brought to poverty for what I am doing. Mind you, there might still be some who would ridicule me in a similar way...

;-)

Lovely set up you have, btw. Those eyepieces make it shine.