Our Sun Is A Star ! Options

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

A very simple topic title because everybody knows that our Sun is a Star ( lectured to 8 year olds all over the world ... )

But which scientist/Astronomer actually found out this 'simple' fact ?
( 17th Century CHristiaan HUYGENS studied the Sun, 19th Century Angelo SECHI even studied Sunspots )

I do know that 20th Century Fred HOYLE did a lot of calculations on the destiny of Stars but we might go back way earlier to know who found out that our Sun is a Star

[tty]

I doubt these medieval or older telescopes for several reasons.

First telescopes have such obvious military and naval applications that it seems highly unlikely that they would ever have been "forgotten". Once they were invented they spread very quickly.
The same thing is true about spectacles which were invented early in the fourteenth century (at least that is what contemporary sources say) and also spread quite rapidly.

Second there are quite a number of optical works from the Middle Ages and early modern times, none of which describes a telescope in unequivocal terms.

I know it seems strange that it took 300 years to progress from spectacles to a refractor, but there are any number of inventions that could have been made centuries or millenia earlier from a technological point of view if only somebody had had a bright idea. Take the hot-air balloon or the windmill or the stirrup for example.

tty

[ljk4-1]

I recall reading about the early history of the telescope that when
Hans Lippershey started investigating its workings, the device was
known as and considered to be a child's play toy. So this may explain
why scientists and governments of the era did not delve into it until
roughly 1609.

The only wheeled vehicles ever found in Aztec culture were also
children's toys. Is this just more proof that when we grow up, most
people lose their wonder and natural inquisitiveness about the world?
That only those who don't go on to be the inventors and scientists?

The ancient Greek Heron invented the steam engine, but nothing major
came of it for ages. And a Roman actually built a small model of a bird
that flew around on a string using steam power, but the 747 did not come
right after that for at least several weeks.

I highly recommend the book The Ancient Engineers by de Camp and
Campbell.

[David]

I recall reading about the early history of the telescope that when
Hans Lippershey started investigating its workings, the device was
known as and considered to be a child's play toy. So this may explain
why scientists and governments of the era did not delve into it until
roughly 1609.

The technical breakthrough is, I think, the quality of the lenses and the ability to grind them. Using ordinary spectacle lenses of the time I doubt that a magnification better than 2x could be obtained. Lipperhey apparently experimented with a great enough variety of lenses to get the magnification up to about 3x; his contribution stemmed from having, as a spectacle maker, a lot of lenses on hand, and the willingness to play around for a while with different combinations to produce a better image. 3x is good enough for some basic spyglass work, and got people interested in the instrument as a tool rather than a toy, for which Lipperhey deserves credit. But Galileo deserves even more credit for bringing the instrument to a higher state of efficacy and making it useful for astronomical study.