[FOTZeiss] Fw: An important anniversary?

[Glenn A. Walsh]

FYI

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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--- On Sat, 3/12/11, Thony Christie <thony.christie at T-ONLINE.DE> wrote:

> From: Thony Christie <thony.christie at T-ONLINE.DE>
> Subject: An important anniversary?
> To: HASTRO-L at listserv.wvu.edu
> Date: Saturday, March 12, 2011, 3:17 AM

> In the last few years we have had a
> series of 400th anniversaries connected
> with the genesis of telescopic astronomy, 2008 the
> invention of the
> telescope, 2009 the first astronomical telescopic
> observations Harriot,
> Galileo, Marius etc. and 2010 the publication of the
> Sidereus Nuncius. John
> Ptak who runs a second-hand science book shop and write a
> wonderfully
> idiosyncratic blog has drawn my attention to the fact that
> the series
> continues this year. 
> 
> Scientific discoveries are only accepted by the scientific
> community when
> they are independently confirmed by other researchers. The
> discoveries
> announced by Galileo in the Sidereus Nuncius proved very
> difficult to
> confirm largely because of the poor quality of the
> telescopes available at
> the time. In 1611 the astronomers of the Collegio Romano
> under the guidance
> of Christoph Clavius made public their confirmation of all
> of Galileo’s
> discoveries thereby removing opposition to their acceptance
> by the wider
> world. This is surely a reason, like the other
> anniversaries listed above,
> for historians of astronomy to celebrate. The only problem
> is on which date
> should we celebrate? 
> 
> There are at least two possibilities that offer themselves
> as “Galileo
> Confirmation Day”. The first is the letter sent on 24th
> March 1611 by the
> Collegio astronomers to Cardinal Bellermine, in answer to
> his enquiry in a
> letter from 19th March, confirming all of Galileo’s
> discoveries and signed
> by Clavius, Grienberger, Lembo and Maelcote; this was John
> Ptak’s
> suggestion. I however prefer the 13th May as on this day in
> 1611 the Jesuits
> held a banquet in Galileo’s honour where they publicly
> celebrated his
> discoveries. 
> 
> For those who wish to know more about the Jesuit
> astronomers confirmation of
> Galileo’s discoveries I recommend Eileen Reeves and
> Albert van Helden,
> “Verifying Galileo’s discoveries: telescope-making at
> the Collegio Romano”
> in Jürgen Hamel and Inge Keil eds., “Der Meister und die
> Fernrohre”, Verlag
> Harri Deutsch, 2007, pp 127 – 141. 
> 
> Thony C.
>