A member of staff at London's Science Museum holds aloft a replica of Galileo's refracting telescope from 1610.
The museum today launched its newest exhibition Cosmos & Culture: How astronomy has shaped our world.
Using the telescope, Galileo was able to view unseen parts of the universe.
He studied the moon, discovered the four major satellites of Jupiter, observed a supernova, verified the phases of Venus, and discovered
sunspots.
He also helped prove the Copernican system, which states that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.
Before Copernicus' and Galileo's work, it was held that the sun revolved around the Earth.
This is a replica of one of the earliest telescopes made by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) after he learnt of the invention of the telescope in 1608. This refracting telescope magnifies only 14 times and gives a very restricted field of view. As a result Galileo was only able to view about a third of the Moon through his telescopes. However, despite these limitations, Galileo published 'Sidereus Nuncius' ('The Starry Messenger') in 1610, which describes the celestial sights he saw with his new telescope. These included craters on the Moon, the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter. This facsimile was made in 1923 at the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale, in Florence, Italy where the original still resides.
- Image number:
- 10315150
- Credit:
- Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
- Date taken:
- 20 October 2003 14:47
- Image rights:
- Science Museum
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