James Gregory (November 1638 – October 1675), was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. He was born at Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and died at Edinburgh, Scotland. He was successively professor at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh.

In 1663 he published his Optica Promota, in which the compact reflecting telescope known by his name, the Gregorian telescope, is described.

The telescope design attracted the attention of several people in the scientific establishment: Robert Hooke, the Oxford physicist who eventually built the telescope, Sir Robert Moray, polymath and founding member of the Royal Society and Isaac Newton, who was at work on a similar project of his own.

The Gregorian telescope was the first practical reflecting telescope and remained the standard observing instrument for a century and a half. However, the Gregorian telescope design is rarely used today, as other types of reflecting telescopes are known to be more efficient......

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Title: James Gregory
Approximate Word Count: 521
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