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
History of the telescope color, followed by Ibn Sahl (10th century) and Ibn Al-Haytham (11th century). Actual use of lenses dates back to the widespread manufacture and use of eyeglasses in Northern Italy beginning in the late 13th century. The invention of the use of concave lenses to correct near-sightedness is ascribed to Nicholas of Cusa in 1451. The first record of a telescope comes from the Netherlands in 1608. It is in a patent filed by Middelburg spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey with the States General of the Netherlands on 2 October 1608 for his instrument ""for seeing things far away as if they were