11 replies to this topic

[E-Ray]

Galileo’s discoveries of Jupiter, sunspots, and the Moon were covered in parts 1 through 3 of this series. This article will cover an important discovery that Galileo made in late 1610 of his observations of Venus.

Click here to view the article

[Hax]

Nice read, thank you kindly

[Special Ed]

Ed,

 

Thanks for Part 4.     Interesting to read and follow his reasoning as to why the Copernican system had it right.  And all because he could see the previously unknown phases with a telescope.

 

In my "following in the footsteps of Galileo" sketching project with my Galileoscope, the only observation of his I have left to do is to to record the phases of Venus.

[UnitronTony]

Galileo's observation of the gibbous phase for Venus is arguably the most crucial of his many important discoveries. Yet historians often overlook its significance. This article clearly explains why it disproved the geocentric hypothesis. Well done, E-Ray!

Edited by UnitronTony, 04 April 2021 - 11:41 AM.

[Quaternion]

Thank you so much for researching and sharing this with the community. It is eye opening.  Did Galileo coin the term "naked eye", since you have it in your quote from him above?

[E-Ray]

Hi Quaternion, Good question. I'm not sure where the term "naked eye" came from and could be word selection from the translation that Stillman Drake made from Italian to English.

 

Ed 

Thank you so much for researching and sharing this with the community. It is eye opening.  Did Galileo coin the term "naked eye", since you have it in your quote from him above?

[Doc Willie]

Many years ago, I attempted to do the Galileo Challenge: replicate all his observations in one night. My results are here: http://www.willieyee...bVNBGihLi1tt-c 

[dUbeni]

I do have Galileo "Sidereus Nuncius" fac simile, with translation, and was always fascinated by the way he describes his findings, it must have been truly astonishing for him to observe and confirm Copernicus theories.

 

Bernardo

[GeoNole94]

Thank you for another fine article about this fascinating person.

[Larry Mc]

hi all,

Great series E-Ray!!! Wish I had seen these sooner! (not sure how I missed them, as they're right on the front page, lol)

Since New Years, I've been working my way thru a large stack of many years of old Sky&Tel magazines, cutting out various observing articles to save for future projects. (Binoc Highlights, Deep-Sky Showcase, lunar features column, etc). 

It's taking me longer than I expected, as I've found myself re-reading most of each magazine. I've also been saving their occasional history of astronomy type of articles, as I've become more interested in learning the stories of the early astronomers. While working my way through 2009, I ran across several articles on the 400th anniversary of Galileo and the discoveries he made with his telescope. They sparked an interest in learning more about it, so after after a little internet googling and flipping the pages on a number of books already on my shelf, I ended-up getting a couple of additional books about Galileo, including "Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel, and the book that started it all, "The Starry Messenger" by the Man himself.

 

At this point I realized that I had the makings of a presentation. So I have a new 'research paper' titled: "Galileo - the First Optical Astronomer", along with an associated webpage of my observations - 'Galilean Objects Tour', now online.

Here's the direct link to the pdf paper:  http://stellar-journ... Astronomer.pdf
and to the new page: http://stellar-journ...alileo-Tour.htm
There's also a new 'Galilean Objects You Might See Tonight' handout on my download page.

Hope everyone enjoys this little project as much as I did putting it together!
 

[E-Ray]

Ed,

 

Thanks for Part 4.     Interesting to read and follow his reasoning as to why the Copernican system had it right.  And all because he could see the previously unknown phases with a telescope.

 

In my "following in the footsteps of Galileo" sketching project with my Galileoscope, the only observation of his I have left to do is to to record the phases of Venus.

Hi Special Ed, It's been two years since this Galileo series. Have you completed your observations of Venus with your Galileo-scope?

(Normal) Ed

[Special Ed]

Hi Special Ed, It's been two years since this Galileo series. Have you completed your observations of Venus with your Galileo-scope?

(Normal) Ed

Hi Ed,

 

I have not--but the current, very favorable apparition of Venus will be a good opportunity to make and record those observations.  Thanks for asking. 

 

Are you planning anymore articles on Galileo?