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".
Clock drive
Different types of equatorial clock-driven telescopes were built or proposed in the 17th and 18th century including English astronomer Robert Hooke's 1674 paper proposing their use in precision measurement, a clock-driven aerial telescope objective lens constructed in 1685 by Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini fitted with setting circles, and one supposedly built by English clockmaker and inventor George Graham early 18th century.
What is considered the first practical clock-driven telescope was constructed in 1824, Joseph von Fraunhofer's ‘Great Dorpat’ refractor, a telescope that combined other innovations, such as an achromatic lens and Fraunhofer's "German equatorial mount", making it the prototype of all future large refracting telescopes. Early telescope clock drives used a clock work with falling weights and pendulums, almost like grandfather clocks. Over time the falling weights and pendulums were replaced by an electric motor.