Sidereus Nuncius
The first telescopes appeared in the Netherlands in 1608 when Middelburg spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey tried to obtain a patent on one. By 1609 Galileo had heard about it and built his own improved version. He probably was not the first person to aim the new invention at the night sky but his was the first systematic (and published) study of celestial bodies using one. One of Galileo's first telescopes had 8x to 10x linear magnification and was made out of lenses that he had ground himself. This was increased to 20x linear magnification in the improved telescope he used to make the observations in "Sidereus Nuncius".
Alethoscope
An alethoscope (Greek true+view) is an instrument for viewing pictures with a lens to enlarge and show them with natural relations and proportions. The alethoscope was invented by Carlo Ponti in 1860 and patented in 1861. It was used to view photographs that were colored, perforated and mounted on a curved frame. The alethoscope showed day-and-night effects whether viewing it against the light or reflect the light by two side mirrors. It is the larger version of a megalethoscope.