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Mike Loffland
Web Guru (Astronomics)
Reged: 09/03/04
Posts: 2080
Loc: Norman, Oklahoma
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Galileo's Telescope
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Gene Baraff
sage
Reged: 03/22/09
Posts: 246
Loc: Berkeley Heights, N.J.
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Like Cathy, I went to Phila especially to see this exhibit.
Cathy's description of what the exhibit contained and how the exhibit presented the material was superb.
She rightly focussed on one of the most imaginative features - letting us (from the world of high-quality but affordable scopes) understand the observing limitations Galileo endured. Looking through those purposely terrible exhibit scopes was a revelation.
One of the most awe inspiring museum exhibits ever put together. At least, awe inspiring to our community of modern amateurs.
Gene Baraff
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Scott Watson
sage
Reged: 05/26/06
Posts: 279
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It is truly remarkable that Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus all worked the exact same problems at nearly the same time and solved the various aspects so well. They truly set the stage for Newton to come along and stand on the shoulders of giants. The world was forever changed.
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astrobug
journeyman
Reged: 10/31/06
Posts: 8
Loc: Portland, OR
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Thanks for the great review of what sounds like a truly wonderful exhibit...I especially liked the description of the hands-on demos of the Galilean telescope (and all of its optical shortcomings). I am on the west coast, so unfortunately I won't get a chance to see it on tour. However, my wife and I were fortunate enough to go to Europe for our honeymoon, and we did the science geek's self tour. We visited: Greenwich Observatory, The British Museum of Natural History (solo, wife was shopping at Harrods  ), The Pasteur Institute, The Hotel de Cluny (Messier's former observatory, now a fine medieval tapestry museum), and
The Institute and Museum of the History of Science. They were all impressive and awe-inspiring in their own way, but the IMSS is the must-see if you're ever in Florence. Michelangelo's David can wait--yes it's great art, but did it change the course of human history like Galileo's telescopic discoveries?. Aside from the Galilean telescopes (including the one currently on tour in Philly, plus the remaining bits and pieces of his other instruments) and his finger in a jar (how romantic!), all of the other telescopes and scientific instruments displayed there would be worth the price of admission on their own. I especially liked all of the wooden-tubed Newtonians. Anyhow, sorry if this has strayed a bit off-topic, I mainly just wanted to give a hearty second to seeing Galileo's telescope for yourself, in person (wherever it may be).
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Gene Baraff
sage
Reged: 03/22/09
Posts: 246
Loc: Berkeley Heights, N.J.
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Quote:
The Institute and Museum of the History of Science. IMHS is the must-see if you're ever in Florence.
We had been in Florence for two and a half days the year before, and the IMHS WAS on our list of must-sees. But time ran out: We had added another museum at the last minute - the Museum dell Opera di Duomo. This is a museum devoted solely to the architecture of the Duomo - how they built it, the evolution over the centuries of the tools and building techniques used, the plans at each stage - how the appearance of the building changed radically over time.
That's why the opportunity (Philadelphia) to see what we had missed in Florence was so exciting.
Gene
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Larry F
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 05/24/04
Posts: 1597
Loc: Westchester, NY
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My wife and I visited the exhibit in April when we were in Philadelphia for a medical meeting. The exhibit was excellent but simply to be in the presence of such a significant object was reason enough to be there.
We were in England in September and visited the William Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath, housed in the dwelling he lived in when he made the discovery of Uranus (in the small garden behind the house, with a decent view of the ecliptic but not to the north because of the height of the house). It has a replica of the 6" scope Herschel used to make the discovery, and has some original tools (including Herschel's lathe and the oven he used to prepare the speculum metal mirrors), telescope parts and documents, some old music instruments (Herschel was originally a musician and composer) and one of Caroline Herschel's dresses.
Bath is a lovely and historically important city well worth the 90-minute train ride from Paddington Station in London for a day's outing.
We also went to Greenwich, where Harrison's clocks are still running after 240 years.
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C5 Orange Tube SCT, CPC 800 XLT SCT
Orion 127 Mak, StellarVue Nighthawk
Coronado Maxscope 40, Lunt 60mm H-alpha double-stack
5 1/4" f/5.2 home-built Newtonian
Denk II Binos
Giro 2/Tech2000 Giro Driver/Tech2000 QuickDraw Pier
Mallincam Color Hyper Plus
A zillion eyepieces and some more mounts
Mason & Hamlin BB 2140 mm (grand piano)
My Gallery
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quantumac
sage
Reged: 12/17/07
Posts: 385
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The mass-produced LX200R I have in my back yard is dwarfed by much finer telescopes available these days, but it's also far more powerful than the humble scopes made just a few centuries ago. Those times I get telescope envy, I must remind myself that Galileo would have been ecstatic to have a modern, mass-produced telescope.
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Scope: Meade 10" LX200R
Guide/Planetary Camera: Imaging Source DBK41AF02.AS
DSO Camera: QHY8
Guide Hardware: Celestron OAG, Shoestring Astronomy GPUSB
Software: Mac OS X, Starry Night Pro, Nebulosity, PHD Guiding, PixInsight, Astro IIDC. No Windows anything.
Edited by quantumac (10/13/09 02:39 PM)
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