Metius was born at Alkmaar in the Netherlands; together with Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen, he is credited with the invention of the telescope. His father was a cartographer while his brother, Adriaen, was an astronomer and mathematician who had worked with Tycho Brahe at Hven and had taught the famous mathematician and philosopher René Descartes.

Metius put in a claim for a patent for his ‘perspicilla’ (telescope) in October 1608, but he was beaten to it by Lippershey who had put in a similar claim just two weeks earlier.