2009 is the year of astronomy and Plus will be part of the celebrations!
In May 1609 Galileo Galilei received reports of "a spyglass by means of which visible objects, though very distant from the eye of the observer, were distinctly seen as if nearby." Intrigued, he set about building his own version of this curious device, and he succeeded: by the end of the year he had discovered mountains on the Moon, the moons of Jupiter and the make-up of the Milky Way. His observations revolutionised our understanding of the Universe, and his use of the telescope marked the birth of modern astronomy — which celebrates its 400th anniversary this year.
posted by Plus @ 10:33 AM 
1 Comments:
- At 4:26 PM,
Anna Faherty said... -
And of course it is also 400 years since Englishman Thomas Harriot made the first recorded telescopic observations of the moon (on 26th July 1609).