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 have been who he remembered. Boreel's conclusion that Zacharias Janssen invented the telescope a little ahead of another spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, was adopted by Pierre Borel in his 1656 book "De vero telescopii inventore". Discrepancies in Boreel's investigation and Zachariassen's testimony (including Zachariassen misrepresenting his date of birth and role in the invention) has led some historians to consider this claim dubious. The "Janssen" claim would continue over the years and be added on to with Zacharias Snijder in 1841 presenting 4 iron tubes with lenses in them claimed to be 1590 examples of Janssen's telescope and historian Cornelis