Sidereus Nuncius
or The Sidereal Messenger
Galileo’s report of what he saw through the telescope in the winter of 1609-10, published in Venice in March 1610 and read across Europe within months: a moon with mountains and valleys rather than a polished sphere, a Milky Way resolving into individual stars, and four bodies moving around Jupiter. The last of these gave the Copernican system a visible answer to the objection that the earth could not carry the moon with it. Albert Van Helden’s edition supplies a translation, an introduction on the state of astronomy before the telescope, and a conclusion on what followed.
Recommended by 1 Person
Dava Sobel
Until Galileo's time, the most that anyone could know about a planet was where it was. With his telescope Galileo was able to determine the composition of the moon. He was also able to solve various longstanding mysteries, such as what is the Milky Way – by looking through the telescope he could see that it was made up of myriad stars. Perhaps his most exciting discovery was finding the moons of Jupiter.
Interview · April 2012
As an Amazon Associate, bookstoread.org earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Spotted an error on this page? Tell us and we will fix it.