Location: Meridian Building, Royal Observatory, Greenwich 
Admission: Free, open daily 10.00–17.00

The autumn of 2008 marks the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope. To celebrate, this exhibition explores some aspects of its history.

Historians are not absolutely sure who invented the telescope, but it is known that in 1608 a Dutch spectacle maker, Hans Lipperhey, announced a new lens-based seeing instrument that made distant objects appear much closer. Since then, the telescope has evolved as a key scientific instrument that has changed our perception of the world and the universe around us.

Telescopes naturally found a home in observatories throughout the world, but most of the ones ever made have been for other uses at sea and on land.