Amazing: Check out Isaac Newton's original handmade telescope

This is incredibly cool. Isaac Newton worked at the Royal Society, and the organization has kept since 1688 the original telescope that Newton himself built.

Watch the video to understand a nice bit of chemistry as well. Nowadays telescope mirrors are made out of aluminum, which requires a great deal of electricity to refine. That was obviously impossible in the pre-electric age, so Newton relied on clever alloy chemistry to make a mirror shiny enough for astronomy.

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