Person/Civilization That Changed Astronomy

Introduction

The science of astronomy took a gigantic leap ahead in the first ten years of the 1600s with the invention of the optical telescope and its use to study the evening sky. Galileo Galilei did not create the telescope but was the first to use it systematically to observe celestial things and record his discoveries. His publication, Sidereus nuncius or The Starry Messenger was first released in 1610 and made him famous. In it he described on his observations of the Moon, Jupiter and the Milky Way. These and later observations and his interpretations of them finally directed to the demise of the geocentric Ptolemaic form of the universe and the adoption of a heliocentric form as suggested in 1543 by Copernicus.

In 1592 he started lecturing on mathematics at the Univ. of Padua, where he stayed for 18 years. There, in 1609, having heard accounts of straightforward magnifying equipment put together by a lens-grinder in Holland, he assembled the first entire astronomical telescope. Exploring the heavens with his new help, Galileo discovered that the moon, shining with echoed lightweight, had an uneven, mountainous surface and that the Milky Way was made up of many distinct stars.

In 1610 he discovered the four biggest satellites of Jupiter, the first satellites of a planet other than Earth to be detected. He discerned and studied the oval form of Saturn (the limitations of his telescope stopped the resolving of Saturn's rings), the stages of Venus, and the locations on the sun. His investigations verified his acceptance of the Copernican theory of the solar system; but he did not in an open way affirm a doctrine so are against to acknowledged beliefs until 1613, when he handed out a work on sunspots. Meanwhile, in 1610, he had gone to Florence as philosopher and mathematician to Cosimo II de' Medici, impressive duke of Tuscany, and as mathematician at the Univ. of Pisa. (Andersen 291)

 

Discussion

Before Galileo turned his telescope in the direction of the evening atmosphere the proceeding of astronomy was attractive much an astrological pursuit where things and motions of object in the atmosphere were explained using ancient and archaic understandings of the universe and how it works.

But he didn't just observe and note new things in the sky. He directed scientific methods, mathematical regulations, and ordered thinking to what he discerned and it is this traverse discipline set about that conceived the up to date science of observational astronomy.

Galileo is often considered of as inventing the telescope. He didn't create the telescope but he was the first individual to turn one in the direction of the evening sky. And the observations he made conceived the new science of up to date astronomy where telescopes are utilized to assist us understand our universe, our place in it, and how it works.

Galileo first heard about the secret telescope in 1609 and set out to make an exact duplicate for himself. This first telescope magnified images about three times. And over the course ...