It is a 20X magnification telescope. As you would expect it isn't as nice as a modern telescope, but it is going to serve the purpose of outreach. With the up coming year being the 400th anniversary of modern Astronomy thanks to Galileo using a similar type of telescope, it will come in handy to use as a prop for discussion.

Plus, it helps me appreciate the amount of deductive reasoning that went into what Galileo's discoveries took.

>He saw craters on the Moon.

>He discovered the rings of Saturn. (He called them ears though)

>He saw that the Milkyway was made up of stars.

>He discovered the Moons of Jupiter (Galean Moons), and figured out that they were orbiting Jupiter.

>He discovered the Phases of venus

>Due to those last 2 discoveries he was able to put the last nail in the coffin of the arguements for earth centric beliefs.

Considering that most of us here have better quality binoculars than his equipment was like, it just astounds me that he accomplished the things he did. Even department store telescopes out perform anything he ever used. Having a working replica is just pretty darned cool to help put his accomplishments into perspective.