Galileo Galileo (February 15, 1564 - January 8, 1642)
One of the first who used a telescope (a term he coined in April, 1611) to
observe the skies in late 1609, and the first to publish his observation to a
wider audience; a summary of the first discoveries was published in his famous
Sidereus Nuncius (Siderial Messenger) in May 1610. His first telescope
had a free aperture of 16 mm and magnification of 21.
Discovered many phenomena:
November 30 to December 10, observations of the
Moon.
Discovers "mountains" (and craters).
February 1617, three stars of the
Trapezium cluster in M42 (without noting
the Orion Nebula).
Pre-discovery sighting of Neptune in 1612.
Note: Some of these discoveries were independent rediscoveries, e.g.
Thomas Harriot
discovered the mountains on the
Moon
and sunspots earlier.
Previously, Galileo had observed and studied the "New Star" of 1604
(Kepler's
supernova).
Posthumous honors are numerous and include the naming of asteroid (697) Galilea,
(discovered February 14, 1910 by J. Helffrich in Heidelberg, provisionally named
1910 JO and, from independent sightings, A910 DA, 1945 GE, and 1979 FL2), Moon
Crater Galilaei (10.5N, 62.7W, 15.0 km diameter, named 1935), Mars Crater
Galilaei (5.7N, 27.0W, 137.3 km, named 1973) and "Galileo Regio" on Jupiter's
"Galilean" Moon Ganymede,
the naming of the Galileo Jupiter Orbiter spacecraft,
as well as trivial things like street names,
e.g. in Paris, France: Rue Galilée,
and in Munich, Germany: Galileiplatz.
Galileo Galilei presentation within the
Galileo Museum
within the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (IMSS) of Florence,
Italy, including items like two of Galileo's telescopes (of 16mm and 26mm
free aperture).
Kenneth Glyn Jones, 1968.
The Search for the Nebulae -- II.
Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Vol. 78, No. 5 (1968),
p. 360-368. Section on Galileo: p. 362-363.
Reprinted in: The Search for the Nebulae. Chalfont St. Giles, 1975.
