GALILEO from Pioneer Astronomers By Navin Sullivan

Vocabulary- Galileo Apparatus- a piece of equipment that has a particular use Extraordinary- unusual or amazing Constellation-group of stars that form shapes in the sky Celestial- relating to the sky Interrogation- questioning

Spelling Words Scrape Favor Layer Great Stale Praise Sleigh Reins Danger Hasty Neighbor Daily Straight Eight Explain Sailors Wavy Crazy Amazed bathed

Galileo Galilei lived in Italy and was a professor of Mathmatics in He heard from Paris about a great device that was called a Dutch cylinder or Dutch Perspective. He hastily assembled the materials to make his own Perspective or telescope This straight tube used a concave lens and a convex lens to make objects far away seem larger- sort of like eyeglass lenses Galileo heard from his neighboring pupil

He was very excited Galileo began to re- make the apparatus as it had been described He realized it had extraordinary potential to the scientists of the world He got a tube of lead and made a crude telescope. Later he used a tube of wood He knew that this tube could make him a lot of money, praise and help the world

His new invention could be used by sailors to spot far away ships on the horizon He took his invention to the Venetian Senate and showed them how to look out to sea They could see the ships and were very happy with his new invention They favored him with a raise in his salary He could see very far away

Galileo knew he could also look out at the stars He increased the magnification of the telescope to 30 times the size by changing the lens shape just a little scraping of the glass Years earlier the entire town had seen something great in the night sky that made them wonder more about the stars- they had seen a new star They knew finally that the sky could change and new stars could be seen- the telescope could help explain the stars to man

Galileo looked at the moon He could see the moon lit on one side by the sun. He could tell there was a sunrise and a sunset on the moon, like earth This meant that the moon rotated and also went around the sun, just like earth He also saw wavy bumps and dark spots on the surface. He then realized the moon had mountains, just like earth

Galileo was curious He continued to look out at the moon and make daily observations and calculations about it and it’s many layers He wondered if there was life or air or was it dead? How could he explain it? He wondered how the rest of the world would accept his observations about celestial bodies they feared?

He explored all of the sky He saw many new stars never seen before He saw that the constellations of Orion contained not eight or 9 stars but 89 stars He saw the Milky Way was a belt of stars way too many to count- the sky was bathed in the glow of so many stars The old stale theories about the heavens were going away

He found Jupiter He observed Jupiter, the largest planet He noted there were bright lights like stars that moved around Jupiter He determined they were moons, just like earth’s moon He published his findings in a book called Messenger from the Stars He had told the world that the earth was just part of a large universe of stars and other celestial bodies

Galileo amazed everyone Galileo’s findings also scared many People praised him for his findings, but many favored him crazy The church thought there was great danger in having so much knowledge Galileo’s findings showed that the earth was not the center of the universe, as proof of Copernicus’ theories of 70 years earlier

He stated that the earth circled the sun This angered the Church of Rome At first they warned him to keep quiet A new Pope was elected in 1633 and finally they held an Inquisition and claimed he was in defiance of the Church teachings He was an old tired man and he decided it was better to stay silent Almost 100 years later in 1728, James Bradley finally proved Galileo’s theories