Observational astronomy Verifiable What one cannot see Commentary

Galileo Galilei astronomy

Observational astronomy

• Hans Lippershey’s assistant, maybe,
• discovered that combining a weak convex lens
• with a strong concave lens
• made distant objects appear close to the eye.
• Lippershey and another lens-maker Zacharias Janssen
• began making telescopes
• in the fall of 1608. Within a year, Galileo Galilei
• had made more powerful telescopes
• and had turned them to the heavens.
• Thereupon, Galileo,
• discovering
• that the moon had mountains
• that Jupiter had moons
• that the constellations were crowded
• with stars that the eye could not see
• that the Milky Way was composed of stars
• and that planets had a measurable width,
• became the first “starry messenger.”

Verifiable

• Disbelief and hostility
• followed Galileo’s assertion
• that the heavens were not perfect.
• Surely if Galileo were not mad
• then his telescope had optical defects
• that created the illusion of moons.
• The Grand Duke paid Galileo to make telescopes
• and had them sent to courts throughout Europe
• so that others could verify his observations.
• Several astronomers published
• confirmations of the existence
• of the moons of Jupiter within the year.

What one cannot see

• Limited by nature,
• one cannot see what one cannot see
• how strange plants and animals grew and died
• in distant and unfamiliar times and places,
• how distant worlds suffered the ravages of time
• cratered by unknowable asteroids,
• how the infinite makes the universe impossibly old,
• so it’s only common sense, not fear or faith,
• to meet foolish assertions with scorn.