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".
La Silla Observatory
By 1976, the largest telescope planned, the , started operations. It was subsequently to have a 1.4m CAT (Coudé Auxiliary Telescope) attached. In 1984, the 2.2m telescope began operations, while in March 1989, the 3.5 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) saw first light. The program reached its apex with the installation of the SEST in 1987 (Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope), the only large submillimetre telescope in the southern hemisphere, which was a combined project between ESO and the Swedish Natural Science Research Council. Around the end of the century some of the original telescopes were closed: the 1m Schmidt closed in 1998 and the 1.5m in 2002, while new equipment owned by various foreign observatories was introduced. A 1-metre telescope owned by Marseille Observatory opened in 1998, followed by a 1.2-metre telescope from Geneva Observatory in 2000.