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Man landed on the moon 20th July 1969. . Galileo was born in Pisa, Tuscany in 1564, the son of Florentine musician Vincenzo Galilei. At age 17, Galileo went to the University of Pisa. He enrolled as a medical student, following his father’s advice, but turned to mathematics, after persuading his father that he didn’t want to be a doctor. His father allowed him to be tutored by the Tuscan court mathematician, Ricci, who designed fortifications. Galileo proved to be an extremely talented mathematician, and in his early twenties he wrote some tracts extending results of Archimedes on centres of gravity of shapes. At age 25, he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics at Pisa. (In the popular mind, mathematician tended to mean astrologer.) At age 28, in 1592, Galileo moved to a better position at Padua, in the Venetian Republic, where he stayed until the age of 46. During 1607-08 talk began to reach Galileo about a new wondrous instrument that could make things that were far away seem close. In 1608, Dutch eyeglass maker, Hans Lippershey offered this new device to the government for military use. This new device made use of two glass lenses in a tube to magnify distant objects. He may not have invented the telescope (in fact, at least two other Dutch opticians were also working on a similar idea at the time), but Hans Lippershey has been credited with its invention. He, at least, applied for the patent for it first. As soon as Galileo heard about the wondrous device coming out of the Netherlands, he made it his business to acquire one. By 1609, he was ready for the next inevitable step. He began using telescopes to observe the heavens, becoming the first astronomer to do so. While Galileo Galilei did not invent the telescope, he made great improvements to the technology. His first construction was a three power instrument, which he quickly improved to eight, twenty and then thirty magnification. He unveiled his improved instrument in August 1609, (exactly 400 years ago) when he invited a select influential few to view the moon. With this new tool, he could see mountains and craters on the moon, discovered that the Milky Way was composed of stars, and discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter. During Galileo's time, education was primarily dominated by Jesuit and Dominican priests. One of the most important aspects of Galileo's “threat” to education is that he published his writings in Italian, rather than Latin, which was the official language of scholarship. Galileo was attempting to have his ideas accepted by the common people, hoping that they would eventually filter into the educational institutions. Thus, Galileo was regarded as an enemy of the established scientific authorities and experienced the full weight of their influence and persecution. In 1614, another Dominican, Father Tommaso Caccini, who had previously been reprimanded for rabble-rousing, preached a sermon with the text “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into the heaven?” He attacked mathematicians, and in particular Copernicus. The Catholic Church had set up a committee of men who decided what was for and what was against the teachings in the bible. They had decided that the Copernican theory was against the bible and therefore heresy. It was suggested to Galileo that providing he treated his idea of the sun at the centre of the solar system as a theory, everything would be all right, but Galileo published his discovery in a book, and was immediately arrested. He was too famous to be thrown in jail, so instead he was given 'house arrest’; however, this was to be for the remainder of his life. Galileo would have been much better off if he had kept his mouth shut about the wonderful things he saw with his telescope. He wasn't forgiven for his Copernican heliocentric heresy by the Catholic Church for nearly four centuries, until 1992. Observation of the sky was not new in Galileo’s time, but looking through a tube that made things look bigger and show detail imperceptible to the human eye was. Systematic observations are recorded to have taken place in Iraq in the 9th century. In many private observatories from Damascus to Baghdad, meridian degrees were measured, solar parameters were established, and detailed observations of the Sun, Moon, and planets were undertaken. In Ireland everyone knows Newgrange indicates the Winter Solstices each year and dates back to over 5000 years. Here in our church commemorated in the main ‘Wilson Memorial Window’, high up on the left side, is the picture that is on the front cover this month Oscailt magazine. Rev.E.Savell Hicks, describes this very well in part of the inaugural address at the restoration of this window:- If your eyes will move upwards you will find the two ideas of Truth and Discovery linked in the smaller window above, by the figure of the Astronomer, directing his instrument towards the distant stars, and bringing back to us the revelation which sets our thoughts towards vaster causes and greater issues than those of this small world-- the revelation of an infinite Universe, in which stars and systems are scattered in diverse profusion. It is a thought associated with the names of Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, and many another in times ancient and modern who have helped man to raise his mind to some faint and faltering appreciation of the tremendous drama of creation in which he plays his little part.
P.Spain |