page_title: Galileo Galilei
section_title: Moon
hierarchical_section_title: Galileo Galilei / Scientific contributions / Astronomy / Moon
caption_attribution_description: Page 87 of "Sidereus, nuncius magna longeqve admirabilia spectacula pandens, suspiciendaque proponens vnicuique praesertim vero philosophis, atque astronomis", by Galileo (1564-1642) First published in Venice, 1610. ('In Palthenius') Page is headed: RECENS HABITAE, with a large drawing of planets in orbit and Latin text beneath Rare Books Keywords: Astronomer; Astronomy; Jupiter
context_page_description: Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath, from Pisa. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science".
  Galileo studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of pendulums and "hydrostatic balances", inventing the thermoscope and various military compasses, and using the telescope for scientific observations of celestial objects. His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the observation of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the observation of Saturn's rings, and the analysis of sunspots.
  Galileo's championing of heliocentrism and Copernicanism met with opposition from within the Catholic Church and from some astronomers.
context_section_description: On 30 November, 1609 Galileo aimed his telescope at the Moon. While not being the first person to observe the Moon through a telescope (English mathematician Thomas Harriot had done it four months before but only saw a "strange spottednesse"), Galileo was the first to deduce the cause of the uneven waning as light occlusion from lunar mountains and craters. In his study, he also made topographical charts, estimating the heights of the mountains. The Moon was not what was long thought to have been a translucent and perfect sphere, as Aristotle claimed, and hardly the first "planet", an "eternal pearl to magnificently ascend into the heavenly empyrian", as put forth by Dante. Galileo is sometimes credited with the discovery of the lunar libration in latitude in 1632, although Thomas Harriot or William Gilbert might have done it before.
caption: Galileo's Moon illustrations from "Sidereus, Nuncius" published in Venice, 1610
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