PHILADELPHIA -- Though it looks like a cardboard tube that got left out in the rain, it's a priceless instrument whose owner changed the world. The mottled brown cylinder on display at The Franklin ...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Life!) - A three-foot telescope used by the Italian astronomer Galileo, whose discoveries revolutionized astronomy, is the main attraction at an exhibition at the Franklin ...

Even in the league of genius polymaths, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei enjoys legendary status. He was the first to systematically study space with a telescope and his inventions include the ...

Hans Lippershey's ingenious spyglass -- Galileo's new window on the heavens -- Johannes Kepler, the nearsighted wizard -- Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope -- William Herschel's giant reflectors -- ...