Did Christiaan Huygens need glasses?

Eyeglass prescription for Christiaan Huygens after 330 years

A study of Huygens’ telescope equations and tables

Issued by AIP Potsdam

Huygens built excellent lenses in the 17th century, but his telescopes lacked sharpness in comparison with what was possible at that time. In a recent study, Dr Alex Pietrow, researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), investigated Huygens’ calculations and has concluded that the Dutch astronomer and mathematician was probably near-sighted and would have needed eyeglasses to improve his telescopes.

Christiaan Huygens was a 17th-century Dutch scientist who revolutionized the fields of optics, mechanics, timekeeping, and astronomy. For example, he invented the pendulum clock, created a wave theory of light, discovered Saturn’s moon Titan, and described the true nature of Saturn’s rings. His telescopes and lenses are known to be of superb quality for the time, but were, nevertheless, unable to reach the same sharpness as those built by his rivals.

A new study recently published in the journal Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science takes an unusual look at Huygens’ work and suggests that the lack of sharpness in his lenses was caused by a deficiency in Huygens’…