Space Science after Galileo
Stars
Galileo discovered more than 100 unsuspected stars when he turned his telescope toward Orion and Taurus. Ever since, the number of known stars has continued to increase. Similarly, Ptolemy described 48 constellations in the Almagest; currently there are 88. Galileo inscribed the OU copy of the Starry Messenger to a poet. The human experience of the night sky has always combined scientific and imaginative aspects. Art, literature and astronomy merge in a creative and ongoing exploration of the stars and constellations.
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A Planisphere containing the Celestial Constellations Lacaille, Nicolas (1756) |
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Works of Hesiod Hesiod, (1559) In Works and Days, the poet Hesiod, a roughly contemporary of Homer, compiled guidelines for conducting life and forecasting the weather according to the stars. |
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Appearances of the Sky Aratus, (1547) Aratus, a Greek scientist and poet of the 3rd century B.C.E., offered practical advice for predicting the weather by learning to recognize the seasonal appearances of constellations. |
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Representing the Heavens Coronelli, Vincenzo (1693) The tiny size of a volume by Coronelli belies its historical importance: in this Epitome, Coronelli explained how to use celestial and terrestrial globes, and his techniques for constructing them. |
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Catalog of Southern Stars Halley, Edmond (1679) Edmond Halley, later of cometary fame, sailed to the South Pacific island of St. Helena. Over a period of 2 years, Halley recorded the positions of 341 southern stars in this table of the right ascensions and distances of the principal southern stars. |
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Celestial Atlas,1776 Flamsteed, John (1776) A globe maker for the French royal family, J. Fortin, prepared this edition of Flamsteed’s celestial atlas in a much reduced format. Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal, who oversaw the building of the Greenwich Observatory. Newton relied upon Flamsteed’s star positions in his Principia. |
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Atlas of the Stars Bode, Johann (1782) Bode created a new constellation, Herschels Teleskop, near Auriga, to honor William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus in 1781. This Bode-Fortin-Flamsteed atlas is a 1782 German edition of Fortin’s 1776 reprinting of Flamsteed’s 1729 atlas. |
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Poems, vol. 1 Lord Tennyson, Alfred (1843) “Many a night I saw the Pleiades rising thro’ the mellow shade, glitter like a swarm of fire-flies Tangled in a silver braid.” “Locksley Hall,” 5th couplet. |
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Poems, vol. 2 Lord Tennyson, Alfred (1843) “Many a night I saw the Pleiades rising thro’ the mellow shade, glitter like a swarm of fire-flies Tangled in a silver braid.” “Locksley Hall,” 5th couplet. |
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Works, Byron Byron, Lord (1815-1824) “The night hath been to me a more familiar face than that of man, and in her starry shade of dim and solitary loveliness, I learned the language of another world.” (Manfred, Act 3, Scene 4) |
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Poetical Works Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1876-1877) “Heaven’s utmost deep Gives up her stars, and like a flock of sheep They pass before his eye, are number’d, and roll on.” “Prometheus Unbound,” Act IV (lines 418-420) |
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The Star-Splitter Frost, Robert (1923) In a comical ballad called “The Star-Splitter,” Robert Frost described a man outdoors splitting firewood after the first frost of autumn: “You know Orion always comes up sideways. |
