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As commemorated by the International Year of Astronomy and observed elsewhere on this site, 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the year that astronomer Galileo Galilei began fashioning his own telescopes and turning them to the heavens. Before long, he started to characterize the surface of the moon, discovered a quartet of Jupiter's moons, and began to revolutionize our view of Earth's place in the universe.

Four hundred years ago this week, Galileo reached a milestone along this journey, presenting his telescope to the Senate in Venice on August 25, 1609. The senators were duly impressed, according to historical accounts, doubling the astronomer's salary and making his university appointment a lifelong one.

Prior to August 1609, as noted by ScientificAmerican.com contributor Saswato R. Das in a New York Times op-ed, others had already tried to patent the telescope and others still had, arguably, beat Galileo to the punch in using such a device to study the moon in detail. But it was the Italian professor of physics and mathematics who brought it to the mainstream, publishing a suite of landmark observations in 1610.

For a look at Galileo's telescope and nine others that changed astronomy forever, see our recent slide show undertaken in honor of historic anniversary.

Portrait of Galileo: Wikimedia Commons

5 Comments

1. 1. alexoneal 04:02 PM 8/26/09

   If only Galileo had shared more telescopes with his fellow scientists, instead of giving telescopes to lords and merchants. Despite repeated requests, poor Kepler only had access to one of Galileo's improved telescopes briefly, while a visitor in town loaned him his.
   
   Can you imagine what someone like Kepler could've accomplished if he'd been able to access more and better data with one of these?
   
   Much of Galileo's heartache could've been avoided by making the issue less about himself as being right about science, and more about the actual science. You don't hear the other side of Galileo's persecution by the church too often - that Galileo wanted to rewrite the bible, for example. While I firmly believe science should be free to work without religious involvement, I just as firmly believe the reverse is true.
   
   Galileo was a fabulous promoter of his own scientific genius, but you have to wonder - might science not have progressed faster, with less oppression, if Galileo had (a) not been so devoted to promoting himself as right and forcing his views on others, and (b) allowed more of his fellow scientists to apply his technology?

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2. 2. CynthiaY29 10:54 AM 8/27/09

   400 years ago Galileo was the maverick of the skies, I bet he would have loved the spotlight and exploited it to his advantage to share knowledge with young minds.

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3. 3. tuscany 05:31 AM 8/28/09

   Thanks for this article. Did you know that all of Tuscany is celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo in 2009? There's a ton of exhibits and science/galileo-related places to visit, some of which are listed here http://tinyurl.com/q35epv

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4. 4. spaceboy 03:04 PM 8/30/09

   History has its loopholes. No one here was in person present on the times of Galileo to decide what he did was right or not, yet from the records that we have, he was the one responsible for promoting such a marvelous device to the scientific community.

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5. 5. LdaPonte in reply to alexoneal 10:11 AM 5/27/10

   You are right, in a way. But today nothing has changed. We see may "scientists" (even Nobel laureats, not a bit close to Galileo's genius) that do the same. Not talking about marketing. Galileo wanted to advance in his career and going back to Tuscany, in a high social position, not allowed to a natural philosopher of Padova University.

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