suggestion for the construction of a telescope by the use of two convex lenses, which is the form now most commonly adopted, and is a notable improvement on Galilei's instrument (chapter vi., § 118), one of the lenses of which is concave; but Kepler does not seem himself to have had enough mechanical skill to actually construct a telescope on this plan, or to have had access to workmen capable of doing so for him; and it is probable that Galilei's enemy Scheiner (chapter vi., §§ 124, 125) was the first person to use (about 1613) an instrument of this kind.
139. It has already been mentioned (chapter v., § 108) that when Tycho was dividing the work of his observatory among his assistants he assigned to Kepler the study of the planet Mars, probably as presenting more difficulties than the subjects assigned to the others. It had been known since the time of Coppernicus that the planets, including the earth, revolved round the sun in paths that were at any rate not very different from circles, and that the deviations from uniform circular motion could be represented roughly by systems of eccentrics and epicycles. The deviations from uniform circular motion were, however, notably different in amount in different planets, being, for example, very small in the case of Venus, relatively large in the case of Mars, and larger still in that of Mercury. The Prussian Tables calculated by Reinhold on a Coppernican basis (chapter v., § 94) were soon found to represent the actual motions very imperfectly, errors of 4° and 5° having been noted by Tycho and Kepler, so that the principles on which the tables were calculated were evidently at fault.
The solution of the problem was clearly more likely to be found by the study of a planet in which the deviations from circular motion were as great as possible. In the case of Mercury satisfactory observations were scarce, whereas in the case of Mars there was an abundant series recorded by Tycho, and hence it was true insight on Tycho's part to assign to his ablest assistant this particular planet, and on Kepler's to continue the research with unwearied patience. The particular system of epicycles used by Coppernicus (chapter iv., § 87) having proved defective, Kepler set to work to devise other geometrical schemes, the
