The birth of astronomy occurred, perhaps, when our ancestors looked up at the night sky and tried to understand what they saw. They created stories and myths to explain the patterns they picked out among the infinite points and fuzzy band of light on the dark ceiling.

Since those first astronomers, others have expanded human understanding of the universe from Earth’s atmosphere out to unfathomable distances of light-years. Each expansion in human understanding only seems to bring more questions and a thirst for advancement of the astronomer’s best tool: the telescope.

When the limits of each new telescope are reached, be it a simple magnifying tube or a multibillion dollar space-based observatory, the scientists go back and try to make something more powerful and, sometimes, something novel. There are some telescopes that were so fundamentally innovative in design and so awesome at work that they stand out, even in a crowd of other mighty achievements.

SPACE.com, with the assistance of Wallace Tucker, science spokesman for the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has chosen the top five telescopes of all time for this special Tech Wednesday presentation. There are many criteria that can be used to craft such a list, but these were chosen based on the level of technological advancement associated with them.

As with any list of this sort, you might disagree. To be sure, picking the Top 5 was not easy. Among the runners-up were telescopes that have helped revolutionize astronomy and the technology to pursue it. However, here’s our list:

Galileo Galilei did not invent the telescope, but he sure got himself into some trouble for pointing it at the heavens.

The telescope, as Galileo knew it, was unveiled in the Netherlands in 1608 and had become widely known in Europe by the time Galileo learned of it the following year. Unable to purchase one, he worked out the physics of the optics on his own and, shortly after, made his first telescope with homemade lenses. That "spyglass" only had 3x-magnification power, but within two months, Galileo improved it to 20x. And with that he examined the Moon, saw that the Milky Way was composed of individual stars, and discovered four moons around Jupiter.

Galileo published his findings in a short work called Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger). He then went on to discover the phases of Venus, the rings of Saturn, and was one of the first to observe sunspots.

Based on some of these observations, Galileo argued that Copernicus was right -- it is the Sun, not Earth, around which celestial objects revolve. The Catholic Church at first allowed Galileo to present his ideas as mathematical hypotheses. But by 1633, Galileo was forced to recant his beliefs and was placed under house arrest. He died nine years later.

For his curiosity and daring, and for paving the way for all future astronomers, professional and amateur, Galileo's humble telescope makes this list.