This is obviously a big year for fans of astronomy. As I have mentioned elsewhere, it has been 400 years since Galileo Galilei presented his telescope. He did not invent the first telescope but he did refine it and use it to reveal hitherto undiscovered wonders.
To quote “The Galileo Project”…
Galileo invented many mechanical devices […], such as the hydrostatic balance. But perhaps his most famous invention was the telescope. Galileo made his first telescope in 1609, modeled after telescopes produced in other parts of Europe that could magnify objects three times. He created a telescope later that same year that could magnify objects twenty times. With this telescope, he was able to look at the moon, discover the four satellites of Jupiter, observe a supernova, verify the phases of Venus, and discover sunspots. His discoveries proved the Copernican system which states that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun. Prior to the Copernican system, it was held that the universe was geocentric, meaning the sun revolved around the earth.
It was very brave to stand up to the official position of the Vatican that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. In 1633 he was summoned to Rome to face the Inquisition. He was found guilty of heresy for his book ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ and sentenced to house arrest. He died at his home in Florence in 1642.
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