2023-05-07 18:00:00
Without being aware of his handicap, the astronomer designed his telescopes by adapting them to his sight.
This article is taken from the monthly Sciences et Avenir – La Recherche n°915, dated May 2023.
Height of the story: known for the discovery of the rings of Saturn thanks to a telescope of his manufacture, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was probably nearsighted.
Telescopes built over 300 years ago
Huygens might not see distant objects clearly and, without naturally suspecting it, his vision might have been corrected by glasses of -1.5 diopters. This is the result of a study carried out at the University of Stockholm (Sweden) on the telescopes built more than 300 years ago by the Dutch astronomer.
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A myopia compensated by its instruments
Even though they are of the highest quality, these do not produce images as sharp as those of its contemporaries. But Christiaan Huygens designed his telescopes through a process of trial and error on different combinations of ocular lenses. On examination of the instruments, it turns out that he had thus compensated, with precision and without knowing it, for his slight myopia so that his instruments gave him a clear vision of the sky.
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