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February 12, 2009
Astronomy Exhibit: Watchers of the Sky
The exhibit Watchers of the Sky: Astronomy to the Invention of the Telescope, offers a rare opportunity to see many of the most significant books in the world written by early astronomers. Exhibits include a 400 year old Galileo manuscript.
Vist the exhibit in the UM Special Collections Library, 7th floor, Hatcher Graduate Libary, weekdays 10AM-5PM and Saturdays 10AM-noon, now through April 11.
Beginning with astronomers of ancient Egypt and the records they left on papyri, the exhibit will continue through watchers of the sky from the Byzantine and Middle Ages, and culminate with a manuscript by Galileo of immeasurable importance to our current understanding of the world. On this piece of paper Galileo, who had just begun to experiment with building telescopes in summer 1609, penned his suggestions of how the telescope might be useful to the Doge of Venice, and then used empty space at the bottom of the page in early 1610 to reason through his observations and conclude that he had found four objects that were orbiting Jupiter (now known as the four Galilean moons). The works are all drawn from the collections of the University of Michigan Library.
View an image of Galileo's draft letter to the Doge of Venice.
Posted by betsywil at February 12, 2009 11:33 AM