Q 01/05

From which language do the roots of the word 'telescope' come, meaning 'far' and 'to look'?

A) Latin

B) Arabic

C) Greek

D) Dutch

Answer · why

C) Greek

Tele means 'far' and skopein 'to see'; Galileo himself had used the Latin word perspicillum in the Starry Messenger.

Q 02/05

Who coined the word 'telescope' in 1611, at a banquet honouring Galileo at the Accademia dei Lincei?

A) Johannes Kepler

B) Giovanni Demisiani

C) Federico Cesi

D) Christiaan Huygens

Answer · why

B) Giovanni Demisiani

Demisiani was a Greek mathematician and poet; Prince Federico Cesi hosted the banquet to make Galileo a member of the academy.

Q 03/05

In which country were the first known practical telescopes invented at the start of the 17th century?

A) The Netherlands

B) Northern Italy

C) England

D) Bavaria and Saxony

Answer · why

A) The Netherlands

They were refracting telescopes with glass lenses, used for both terrestrial purposes and astronomy.

Q 04/05

Which Middelburg spectacle-maker filed the earliest known telescope patent application in 1608?

A) Zacharias Janssen

B) Hans Lippershey

C) Jacob Metius

D) Cornelis Drebbel

Answer · why

B) Hans Lippershey

The patent was refused because others claimed the same invention, but the Dutch government paid him handsomely for copies of the instrument.

Q 05/05

How did the October 1608 Dutch patent application describe the new instrument?

A) For counting the stars of heaven

B) For reading the hours of the night

C) For seeing things far away as if they were nearby

D) For spying the ships of Spain

Answer · why

C) For seeing things far away as if they were nearby

A few weeks later another Dutch instrument-maker, Jacob Metius, also applied for a patent.