Ok, why do people think of Galileo Galilei as the inventor of the telescope?

Answer 1

Well As soon as he heard about the wonderous device coming out of the Netherlands, Galileo Galilei was fascinated.

He began constructing telescopes, himself, before ever seeing one in person. By 1609, he was ready for the next inevitable step. He began using telescopes to observe the heavens, becoming the first astronomer to do so.
While Galileo Galilei did not invent the telescope, he made great improvements in the technology. His first construction was a three power instrument, which he quickly improved to eight, twenty and then thirty power. With this new tool, he found mountains and craters on the moon, discovered that the Milky Way was composed of stars, and discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter.

Answer 2

Although he was not the first to come up with the idea of the telescope, he 'popularized' the invention and its usefullness.

In a nutshell, there ya go!

Answer 3

While he may not have invented the concept from scratch himself, he was the first to make a decent working model and share it with the world.
Though not completely right or fair, he is credited with the invention because he was the first to make it work for the world.

Answer 4

I never said he was.

He was, however, the first to use it to look at the objects in the night sky and record his observations.

He is justly credited with many things, but the invention of the telescope is not one of them.

Answer 5

Probably for the same reason that Columbus gets credited for 'discovering' that the Earth was round, even when that fact was clearly known to the ancient Greeks 2000 years before he made his voyage.


Doug