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The International Year of Astronomy (IYA), now under way, marks the 400th anniversary of the year that famed Italian astronomer Galileo began observing and documenting the heavens with increasingly powerful telescopes.

But in a paper in the current Astronomy & Geophysics, University of Oxford historian Allan Chapman argues that a less renowned astronomical pioneer deserves recognition as well. Thomas Harriot, an English mathematician, apparently turned a telescope to the sky even before Galileo did, producing a moon sketch that Chapman says is "the oldest known drawing of a telescopic body, made nearly four months before Galileo's first drawing."

Harriot's sketch, pictured above at left and dated July 26, 1609, is fairly rudimentary, but his moon maps became increasingly detailed as the years passed, as shown by the undated sketch at right. He remains relatively unknown for his contributions to astronomy, compared to Galileo at least, because he did not publish his work and, according to Chapman, never made a public claim for his milestone achievement.

Chapman notes that Harriot seems to have kept pace with his more famous contemporary, independently discovering sunspots in 1610 before Galileo had published or publicly presented his discovery of the phenomenon.

Even if Harriot remains overshadowed by Galileo and other famous names of astronomy, he will at least get his day this summer, when the IYA honors the anniversary of Harriot's first moon drawing at a July 26 event, Telescope400.

Photo credits: © Lord Egremont

5 Comments

1. 1. Atoyota 04:28 PM 1/21/09

   By publishing Galileo shared his work, while Chapman did not. It's not all that important who is credited as much as it was that the work progressed and our world was understood for what it is, as a planet in a system that orbits a Sun.
   Galileo is responsible for that, and without that the science would have been seriously delayed

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2. 2. FireyPheonix 06:37 PM 1/24/09

   I agree but some of the best work has come from people who very little is known about. Some kept quiet because of the church or for private reasons, let us celibrate all of those who help us understand our world.

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3. 3. Dileep Sathe 04:13 AM 1/25/09

   Let us wait for comments of authorities of other British institutes like the Royal Astronomical Society, the British Astronomical Association to say on the claim about Thomas Harriot's finding.

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4. 4. Anne van der Bom 08:26 AM 8/28/09

   To set the record straight: the first demonstration of a telescope was the work of Hans Lipperhey from Middelburg, The Netherlands in september 1608. He applied for a patent, which was not granted because it was contested by two other Dutch inventors.
   
   http://www.huygensinstituut.knaw.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=294&Itemid=39

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5. 5. lbhagen 08:46 AM 12/28/09

   Galileos Telescope 400th Anniversary, sunspots and climate
   -
   http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/12/galileos-telescope-400th-anniversary.html
   -
   www.RoanokeSlant.org

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