Part 2/15:
The origins of the telescope trace back to the Netherlands in the early 17th century. Hans Lippershey, a Dutch eyeglass maker, experimented with stacking lenses within a wooden tube to magnify distant objects. His simple design employed two glass lenses: a convex front lens that bent incoming parallel light rays toward a focal point, and a concave eyepiece that magnified the image for the observer. This basic arrangement allowed for a modest threefold magnification—useful for maritime navigation but limited for space exploration.