The Starry Messenger

original: "RECENS HABITAE." This likely refers to observations recently conducted.

I will first briefly mention the occasion, then I will review the history of the observations I have performed.

RECENTLY HELD.

About ten months ago, a rumor reached our ears that a certain Belgian had fashioned a spyglass original: "Perspicillum," the term used before "telescope" became standard, by the benefit of which visible objects, though far removed from the eye of the observer, were distinctly perceived as if nearby; indeed, several experiences of this wonderful effect were being circulated, to which some gave credence, while others denied them. A few days later, the same was confirmed to me by letter from Paris original: "Lutetia," the Roman name for Paris by the noble Frenchman Jacques Badovere; this finally was the reason why I turned myself entirely to inquiring into the principles, as well as thinking out the means, by which I might arrive at the invention of a similar instrument; which, shortly thereafter, relying on the doctrine of refractions the study of how light bends through different mediums, I attained. First, I prepared for myself a leaden tube, in the ends of which I fitted two glass lenses, both flat on one side, but on the other side, I made one spherically convex and the other concave; then, moving my eye to the concave lens, I viewed objects as sufficiently large and near; for they appeared three times closer and nine times larger than when seen with the natural sight alone. Afterwards, I fashioned another more exact one for myself, which represented objects more than sixty times larger. Finally, sparing no labor and no expense, I reached the point where I constructed for myself an instrument so excellent, that things seen through it appear nearly a thousand times larger, and more than thirty times closer original: "terdecupla ratione," literally a thirteen-fold ratio in linear terms, but here implying the magnification of the area, than if they were viewed by the natural faculty alone. It would be altogether superfluous to enumerate how many and how great are the advantages of such an instrument both in earthly and maritime affairs. But leaving earthly matters aside, I betook myself to speculations of the Heavens; and first I viewed the Moon from such proximity,