(Christian Huygens) was a pretty decent mathematician and scientist by 17th century standards. However, the telescopes he built were considered relatively weak for the time. now, As reported by Science News, we may know why. The well-known Huygens may need corrective glasses at all times.
Huygens is known for his contributions to astronomy, among other things. He discovered Saturn’s largest moon Titan and also studied the rings of the planet. He achieved this despite describing telescopes at the time as dimmer or dimmer than they otherwise should have been.
Huygens built two-lens telescopes and kept a table of which lenses to combine for different magnification levels. However, his calculations do not align well with today’s understanding of optics. As it turns out, Huygens may have been short-sighted, causing his telescopes to be blurry. To his eyes, they were really sharp, due to the nature of his own eyes. This is supported by contemporary accounts which indicate that Huygens’ father was short-sighted, possibly because the condition ran in the family. According to astronomer Alexander Pietro’s calculations, Huygens may have had 20/70 vision, where he could only read 20 feet beyond what a person with “normal” vision could read from 70 feet away.
It’s a theory that answers a mildly-interesting mystery from hundreds of years ago. Nowadays, our problems with telescopes are more complex. If only a pair of glasses could solve the problem of NASA!
