Telescope earliest existing record of a telescope was a 1608 patent submitted to the government in the Netherlands by Middelburg spectacle maker Hans Lippershey for a refracting telescope. The actual inventor is unknown but word of it spread through Europe. [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]] heard about it and, in 1609, built his own version, and made his telescopic observations of celestial objects. The idea that the [[Objective (optics)|objective]], or light-gathering element, could be a mirror instead of a lens was being investigated soon after the invention of the refracting telescope. The potential advantages of using [[parabolic reflector|parabolic mirrors]]—reduction of [[spherical aberration]] and no
Jacob Groenewegen Jacob Groenewegen Jacob Groenewegen (died 22 May 1609) was a Dutch merchant, who was the leading merchant ("opperkoopman") on the fleet under Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff that left Texel on December 21, 1607, and arrived in Bantam on February 15, 1609. Like Verhoeff, he died on May 22, 1609 on one of the Banda Islands, in an ambush set up by the islanders. In that same year, Jacques Specx directed two ships dispatched to establish the first official trade relations between the Netherlands and Japan. These ships, "De Griffioen" (the "Griffin", 19 cannons) and "Roode Leeuw met Pijlen" (the "Red lion