Feature

Gazing deeper still

Four hundred years ago, Galileo and his telescope brought the heavens into focus, setting the stage for modern astronomy

By Dava Sobel

- More than 2 years ago

Such a small thing, really — two pieces of glass and a tube no longer than the span of a man’s arm. The first telescope that Galileo built (and I don’t mean he was the first to build one, for surely he wasn’t) played tricks with distance and size.