Tycho did as much as could be done with the naked eye, a new technology
was required to extend our vision, the telescope. This lecture
introduces Galileo Galilei, the contemporary of Kepler who was in many
ways the first modern astronomer, and his discoveries with the
telescope. These observations were to electify Europe in the early 17th
century, and begin the final intellectual dismantling of the
Aristotelian view of the world. Galileo's claims that they constituted
proof of the Copernican Heliocentric System, however, were to bring him
into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Recorded 2006 Oct 12 in
100 Stillman Hall on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.