text: The telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey in 1608. Galileo heard about the invention and made his own telescope in 1609. Though he was not the inventor of the telescope, I think he was the first to train it on various astronomical objects such as Jupiter, the Milky Way galaxy (which he could resolve to myriad stars) etc. He the the first to carry out astronomical observations using a telescope. He preached that the earth and the planets move around the sun, which was against the church viewpoints. For writing a book about the helio-centric theory, he was forced to recant his statement. Legend has it that after recanting, he is said to have muttered " epur si muove" meaning " nevertheless it moves" probably referring to the earth.