Galileo and 400 Years of Telescopic Astronomy (eBook)

Peter Grego is an astronomy writer and editor. A regular watcher of the night skies since 1976, he observes from his home in St Dennis, Cornwall, UK, with a variety of instruments. Grego’s primary observing interests are the Moon's topography and the bright planets, but he likes to ‘go deep’ when there's no glare of the Moon to contend with. Grego has directed the Lunar Section of Britain’s Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) since 1984 and is the Assistant Director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association (BAA). He edits and produces four astronomy publications – Luna (journal of the SPA Lunar Section), The New Moon (journal of the BAA Lunar Section), the SPA News Circulars, and Popular Astronomy magazine. He is also layout editor for the Newsletter of the Society for the History of Astronomy. Grego is the author of numerous astronomy books, including: Collision: Earth! (Cassell, 1998), Moon Observer’s Guide (Philip’s/Firefly, 2004), The Moon and How to Observe It (Springer, 2005), Need to Know? Stargazing (Collins, 2005), Need to Know? Universe (Collins, 2006), Solar System Observer’s Guide (Philip’s/Firefly, 2005), Venus and Mercury and How to Observe Them (Springer, 2008); Astronomical Cybersketching (Springer, 2009); The Great Big Book of Space (QED, 2010), and others. He has given many talks to astronomical societies around the UK and has been featured on a number of radio and television broadcasts. Grego maintains his own website at www.lunarobservers.com (which occasionally features live webcasts of the Moon and planets and other astronomical phenomena) and is webmaster for the BAA Lunar Section at www.baalunarsection.org.uk . He is a member of ALPO, SPA, SHA, and BAA and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. David Mannion has three degrees in astronomy and has worked as a teacher for 23 years in schools and colleges in the UK, Austria, and Turkey, and has also tutored for the Open University in Physics and Astronomy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, having been elected in 1984 and was a member of its Education Committee 2005 – 2010. Dr. Mannion has given lectures on astronomy since 1980, run numerous School Astronomy Clubs, and was vice president and a founder member of the Association for Astronomy Education. His other burning interest is weightlifting and he has participated in the last 6 years of the British Masters Weightlifting Competition. He won in his age group and weight category in 2007 and 2010! He wants to continue watching the stars and lifting weights for as long as he possibly can!

Galileo and 400 Yearsof Telescopic Astronomy 3
Foreword 5
Preface 7
Contents 9
1. Eyes on the Skies 10
Pre-Telescopic Astronomical Ideas, Inventions and Discoveries 11
Eastern Skies Under Scrutiny 15
Ancient Greek Philosophy 17
On the Ball 18
Aristarchus Takes Center Stage 19
Eratosthenes Takes Measures 19
Project #1: Measure the Earth’s Circumference 20
Hipparchus’ Heavens 22
Loopy but Long-Lasting 26
Ancient Astronomical Equipment 27
Project #2: Make Your Own Naked-Eye Cross-Staff 30
The Antikythera Mechanism 32
Dogma Defied 35
Sparking a Celestial Revolution 36
Hard-Nosed Inquiries 37
Planetary Law-Maker 44
2. Galileo Magnifico 48
Galileo the Scientist 48
Getting the Ball Rolling 50
Project #3: Measuring Acceleration Due to Gravity 51
Galileo’s Telescope 52
Project #4: Make Your Own Galilean Telescope 54
The Starry Messenger 58
The Moon 60
Harriot’s Lunar First 61
Galileo’s Moon and Earthshine 64
A New World 65
Project #5: Observing Opportunity – View Galileo’s Moon 67
The Mountains of the Moon 71
Project #6: Observe and Draw the Moon’s Craters 72
The Sun 75
Project #7: Observe the Sun 80
Planets 84
Venus’s Phases 84
Project #8: Observe Venus’s Phases 88
Jupiter 88
Project #9: Observe the Galilean Moons 88
Dynamic Gas Giant 90
An Amazing Conjunction 92
Project #10: Observing Opportunity: Significant Conjunctions 2011–2021 93
Saturn 94
Project #11: Following Saturn 96
Stars 97
Project #12: Pleiades Perception 99
The Final Years 99
3. Newton’s Universe 103
Exciting Times 104
Newton’s Annus Mirabilis 106
The Principia 109
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion 109
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation 111
Conservation Law of Momentum and Angular Momentum 112
Gravitational Slingshot 112
Newton’s Cradle 113
Escape Velocity 114
Opticks 115
Packets of Light 117
Inflexions and Rings 118
A New Kind of Telescope 120
Newton in a Nutshell 122
4. Surveying the Solar System 126
Lookers and Optic Tubes 126
Discoveries on the Moon 127
Observatories Come of Age 134
Improvements in Mapping the Moon 138
Odd Lunar Happenings 144
Anomalies Around Aristarchus 146
Cooked–Chilled Mercury 147
Venus the Impenetrable 155
Special Effects 158
Transits 159
The Red Planet 164
Are There Martians? 165
Mars’s Mini Moons 167
Asteroids, Vermin of the Skies 167
The Titius–Bode “Law” 167
Jupiter, King of Planets 169
The Ringed Planet 171
Saturnian Spots 173
Titan 173
Herschel Discovers Uranus 174
Last Planetary Outpost 177
Distant Ice Worlds 177
Comets, Celestial Ghosts 179
5. A Bigger Picture Unfolds 183
Herschel’s Insights 185
Charting the Stars 187
Delving into Deep Skies 188
Hodierna’s Nebulae 189
Messier’s List 190
Project #13: View the Top Ten Messier Objects 194
M31 194
M57 195
M1 196
M42 196
M51 198
M45 198
M27 199
M8 199
M104 199
M13 201
The Herschel Sky Surveys 202
Aberration of Light 203
Plumbing Cosmic Depths 204
A Small Galaxy in a Big Universe 205
Hubble’s Universe 208
The Big Bang and the Expanding Universe 209
Ripples in the Cosmic Fabric 211
6. Beyond Vision 212
Photographic Memories 212
Project #14: Construct a Pinhole Camera Obscura 213
Milestones in Astrophotography 215
Spectroscopy Shows Its True Colors 227
Fantastic Realms Beyond Vision 233
Electromagnetic Revelations 233
Radio Astronomy 237
What Can You “See” with a Radio Telescope? 240
Eavesdropping on ET? 240
Microwave Astronomy 243
Infrared Astronomy 244
Optical Astronomy 247
Ultraviolet Astronomy 251
X-Ray Astronomy 252
Gamma Ray Astronomy 254
Neutrino Astronomy 257
Gravitational Wave Astronomy 258
Cosmic Ray Astronomy 260
Appendix A 262
Appendix B 281
Appendix C 283
Glossary 286
Index 295
About the Authors 300