What year brought the first recorded use of a telescope ?
The first observation with the telescope was on 19 February 1787 , when Herschel pointed the then - incomplete telescope towards the Orion nebula , which he observed by crawling into the telescope and using a hand - held eyepiece:The one achievement of the telescope was to discover Enceladus and Mimas , the 6th and 7th moons of Saturn , although this is not certain , as Herschel used other telescopes at the same time .