he showed his spyglass to the doge and notables of Venice and demonstrated that with it ships could be seen at sea two hours before they became visible to the naked eye. The value of such a device to a maritime power like Venice was obvious. After Galileo donated his spyglass to the Venetian republic, his professorial salary was tripled, and his tenure was guaranteed. By November Galileo had improved the magnification of his spyglass to 20 times, and he began to use it for astronomy.