http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/27/the-celestron-firsts...
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/27/the-celestron-firsts...
Anyway, the problem with tiny little reflecting scopes is that you need a table to set them up on. When you're out in a dark field looking at the stars, there's rarely a table handy.
It is possible to assemble the Galileoscope in an alternate configuration that has the same magnification as the scope that Galileo used.
The real purpose of the Galileoscope is not to build a replica, but to build a cheap but high-quality telescope so that anyone (including children in schools that receive donated scopes) can see what Galileo saw: Saturn's rings, Jupiter's moons, and detailed views of our own moon.
If you're referring to the Galileoscope, yeah, I know that.