According to some accounts, the first optical telescope was accidentally
invented in the 1600s by children who put two glass lenses together while playing
with them in a Dutch optical shop. The owner of the shop, Hans Lippershey,
looked through the lenses and was amazed by the way they made the nearby
church look so much larger. Soon after that, he invented a device that he called a
"looker," a long thin tube where light passed in a straight line from the front lens
to the viewing lens at the other end of the tube. In 1608 he tried to sell his
invention unsuccessfully. In the same year, someone described the "looker" to the
Italian scientist Galileo, who made his own version of the device. In 1610 Galileo
used his version to make observations of the Moon, the planet Jupiter, and the
Milky Way. In April of 1611, Galileo showed his device to guests at a banquet in
his honor. One of the guests suggested a name for the device: telescope.