Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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I don't know how many of you have gotten a chance to go to the library to check out Professor Bacig's reserved copies of The Starry Messenger, but I highly recommend you all hurry on over to read it. I was afraid it would be long and tedious, but it turned out to be quite fascinating, and something that I knew almost nothing about. I will attempt to help you all here with what I understand about the stars and the universe, and what I have been able to learn about it from my recent research.
First of all, in the intro to "The Starry Messenger" Galileo writes a letter "To The Most Serene Cosimo II De' Medici Forth Grand Duke of Tuscany" I wasn't quite sure what I should make of this. I saw a lot of what he said as sarcastic, or else some major sucking up. He basically tells Medici that he has discovered 4 planets and a whole lot of stars, and that he wants to name them all after Medici. I don't know about all of you, but if I discovered a bunch of stars and planets, I'd be naming them after myself, and making myself immortal, not someone who didn't do any of the work to discover the things.
And speaking of immortality, Galileo Galilei certainly did make himself forever remembered by scientists for his contributions, even though he did not chose to name the stars after himself. I was in persuit of a picture of Mr. Galilei, and I found one at http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/degas/348/galileo.html which you can all check out at your leisure.
Galileo made what I consider one of the most important discoveries of his times. Well, actually he may didnt' discover it exactly, accordign to our text the first telescope was discovered elsewhere, but he learned how to make it perfect enough to see into outer space. We all take this for granted. How many times have we heard "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for man kind" when the first space ship landed on the moon. But do any of us even comprehend what it means? Galileo made an awesome discovery, he learned how to find the truth in outerspace.
Now, if you want to learn a little more about the first telescopes (originally called "spyglasses" by Galileo) here is a really detailed site with some good links: http://www-isds.jpl.nasa.gov/cwo/cwo_54ga/html/cd/telescop.htm
With his invention, Galileo manages to view the moon clearly for the very first time. He notes "The surface of the moon is not smooth, uniform, and precisely spherical as a great number of philosophers believe it (and other heavenly bodies) to be, but it is uneven, rough, adn full of cavities and prominences, being not unlike the face of the earth, relieved by chains of mountains and valleys." (Page 31 of "The Starry Messenger") He observed the moon very carefully and made some very detailed drawings. Remember when we were kids, and heard stories about the "Man in the Moon?" Well, at one point people could actually believe that it was something looking down on them, all due to the sun's rays, and the way in which shadows were cast. I found this a tremendously interesting part of Galileo's studies.
At one point in the text, Galileo makes a comparison of this: "As to light and shade, it offers the same appearace as would a region like Bohemia if that were ot enclosed on all sides by very lofty mountains arranged exactly in a circle." (Page 36 of "The Starry Messenger") There is a footnote at the bottom of this page, suggesting that Galileo's comparison got him into a bit of trouble, but it did not go into detail. Later in the work, it explained that Galileo's next book on the system of the world, was delayed over 2 decades due to problems. It gave no further details, so I set out on a quest to find the answers.
I came across a magnificent web page that offers an easy to comprehend idea of Galileo's life, and has a secion on his imprisionment which you should all read. You can find that at: http://bang.lanl.gov/video/stv/arshtml/galileo3.html also if you have time, check out it's links, they're great.
The next section of our reading got a little boring, or perhaps just over my head since I don't like Math and Science. He went into details about angles and circles.
Then he got back into some interesting stuff. He began discussion of the stars. I have always enjoyed looking up at the sky on a starry night, and I like to make my own constellations, and Galileo has a few detailed pictures of constellations. Once again, in persuit of further knowledge, I looked up stars and constellatoins on the internet. For those of you star buffs, check out this photo gallery full of great shots! Especially the link at the bottom called "constellation shots" http://lunchtime.vtc.vsc.edu/notebook/photogal.htm
Due to his incredible memory, and his attention to percise details, Galileo was able to make perhaps the greatest discovery of his time. He found 4 additional planets that had never before been concieved of.
All of these great works came from just one man, and one invention called the telescope. So all of you remember next time you glance up at the sky, there is a whole world of knowldege out there, just waiting for another Galileo with the right tools to discover it!