How to Invent a Telescope

"In late September 1608, Hans Lipperhey, a German-born spectacle maker who had settled in the Netherlands, requested a patent on a new optical instrument. It featured a convex and concave lens mounted on a tube about one foot in length that could make far away objects seem three or four times closer.

"It is said he got the idea when his children, who were playing in his shop, looked through two lenses and could see the weathervane on a distant church as if it were much closer. During the review of his application, he was asked to make an improvement so that the instrument could be used with both eyes; therefore Lipperhey also produced several binocular telescopes as a result of his patent request.

"Unfortunately, the news of his invention did not remain a secret during the patent review, undoubtedly due to the bureaucracy involved with granting approvals. For example, his application was shared with a high-ranking official of the Vatican who immediately dispatched a message to Rome and thus news of his invention started to spread across Europe as fast as coaches could carry it. Ironically, Lipperhey's patent was denied on the basis that his invention could not remain secret and was too easy to copy."

Fascinating stuff, out of UniverseToday. It also shows that Galileo was neither the inventor of the telescope, nor the first to use it for astronomy, although he knew how to build the best telescope of the day. This link is a good read!