Our Dutch friends are justly proud that some of their opticians were the first known makers of telescopes but acknowledge that Galileo Galilei was the first to exploit its astronomical potential.

www.inventionofthetelescope.eu/400y_tele...ge/Itemid,1/lang,en/

Very interesting,thank you John.

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society

I didn't realise that a person called "Janssen" may also lay claim to be the inventor of the telescope.
Quite a character:

He also frequently visited the court of justice because of his participation in bar-fights and his reluctance to pay bills.

and

He could have got the death penalty for counterfeit coining, but he got away with it. Probably, because he knew the sherif and shared the revenues with him!

(Maybe the Dutch kept quiet about Janssen all along.)

Methinks there's a hint of Irishness about that man...

I wonder?

Methinks there's a hint of Irishness about that man...

Don't think so. If he was an Irishman they would have done a proper job and hanged him.