Astronomical Invention

by Jonathan Bues

Two thousand and nine was the 400th anniversary of one of science’s most important achievements, Galileo Galilei’s legendary improvement of the telescope, which set the stage for the many astronomical discoveries he made using it. Before Galileo increased its power and clarity, the telescope was little more than a children’s toy, sold on the streets of European cities. However, when he first discovered the Dutch invention, Galileo saw in it the potential to unlock the mysteries of the night sky. In the process, he found empirical evidence to support Nicolas Copernicus’s theory that the earth revolved around the sun, that planets other than earth had satellites, and that the Milky Way comprised countless individual stars.
Galileo’s observations set in motion a new era of discovery that had profound implications for the scientific, religious and philosophical assumptions of the West. In celebration of Galileo’s achievements, last year was declared the International Year of Astronomy. Officine Panerai, a brand with roots in the heart of Galileo’s adopted home city of Florence, sponsored an exhibition in Stockholm, from October to January, of one of the two surviving telescopes Galileo designed and owned. Replicas of other important instruments housed in Florence’s Museo di Storia della Scienza were also on display at Stockholm’s Nobel Museum, and visitors were invited to experience six learning stations that supply context to Galileo’s contributions to modern science.

Jupiterium
In addition to sponsoring the Stockholm exhibition “The Telescopes of Galileo: Instruments that Changed the World,” Officine Panerai presented its own mechanical astronomical device called the Jupiterium, a three-dimensional, moving model of the stars, the Sun, the Moon and Jupiter and its moons, as Galileo would have seen them with his telescope from earth.