Lecture 16: Galileo and the Telescope

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.