Galileo, Stars and Space

Galileo Galilei, a name that was meant to sound lyrical, is now known by just his first name. Galileo was the son of a well known musician Vincenzo Galilei and grew up in Florence. He attended the University of Pisa with the intention of studying medicine, in accordance to his father's wishes because, as the firstborn son, it was his duty to take care of his family when his father no longer could. However, he soon found that there was a certain order in nature, that it was governed by unseen laws which could only be fully understood through the study of mathematics.

Despite being very intelligent, Galileo had no passion for medicine so he abandoned those studies and focused on studying math. At the age of 19, Galileo had written about a mathematical law, which is now known as the law of the pendulum that talks about the time of each swing of the pendulum. He concluded this by timing the swings of a chandelier with his pulse and noting that they were equal in length up until all motion ceased. At the age of 19 I didn't even know what I wanted to major in.

People often attribute the invention of the telescope to him, but he did not invent it. He perfected it, in other words, the telescope was virtually a toy before Galileo made his own lens. Using that, he made many discoveries about the skies most of which opposed the ideas of the church and Aristotle. Nonetheless, Galileo was steadfast in his assertions and now most of what we know today comes from his writings.  

One of the most amazing things about Galileo, other than his extensive knowledge, is that he had the confidence to make claims that he knew would be controversial. No second guessing, no doubting, he knew what he saw and he knew it to be true. Thanks to him, we have made many advances in space study and mapping out the stars.

Now we have 88 known constellations that are named after different mythological beings and stories. The two that I picked for my project were Canis Major and Canis Minor. Laelaps, a magical dog destined to never surrender a chase, was sent out by Cephalus to hunt down a fox (Canis Minor), who was destined to never be caught. In order to resolve the contradicting fates, Zeus placed them among the stars on different sides of the sky, resulting in a chase that goes on eternally. Dogs have been the faithful companions to people for thousands of years.