Galileo Project

Though the telescope, or the spyglass, was first invented by the Austrians for warfare, Galileo was the first person to improve and use the telescope for astronomy. It was 1609 when Galileo first made made his own telescope, which allowed him to see with a magnification of eight or nine times. In comparison, spyglasses of the day only provided a magnification of three. He first discovered Jupiter in 1609 or 1610, and its 4 moons, now named the Galilean Satellites. Galileo's discovery showed the importance of the telescope as a tool for astronomers, proving that there were objects in space, so far away, that they could not be seen by the naked eye. More importantly and famously, Galileo was the first to discover the Heliocentric model for our solar system, the model in which the earth and the planets revolve around the sun. His theory was seriously controversial during the 17th century because it went against the then largely accepted Ptolemaic world system, which stated everything orbited around Earth. He was tried by the Inquisition for being suspected of heresy, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Apart from Jupiter, Galileo also observed the moon, the sun and discovered many new stars. He was the first person to observe sunspots, the moon’s surface and discovered Neptune, thinking it was only a dim star. He had published a short astronomical treatise called the Sidereus Nuncius, the Starry Message, on March 13th, 1610. This document is considered the first publication on observable astronomy. Today, Galileo is considered the “father of observational astronomy”.  

A current phenomenon that influenced me was the current alignment of planets in the sky. From January 20th through February 20th, five plants could be seen in our night night sky in a straight line: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. Astronomers use the term "planetary alignment" to only say that some planets are in the same general region of the sky, not that they are literally lined up. There is actually no astronomical significance for this alignment that we can see with our naked eye. The planets are not really lined up at all, but scattered around one quarter of the solar system. However, this interesting phenomenon is considered a rare sight because it only happens every decade.

While me and many other stargazers observe the night sky for this planetary alignment in 2016, I was curious as to what Galileo might have seen in the sky when he was busy observing his own sky in 1609. Today, with the use of our smartphones, we can observe the planets and the stars wherever we are in the world, but in his time Galileo had only one homemade telescope and was also one of the very few people to study the sky. For my project, I’ve decided to commemorate Galileo by marking the planetary alignment of the same five planets that he would have saw in the sky in 1609. Next to this, I’ve decided to mark mark the planetary alignment that we can see right at this very moment.