The Grainger College of Engineering
Physics

400th Anniversary of Galileo's Telescope

8/25/2009 Celia Elliott

On August 25, 1609, Galileo's telescope was presented to a group of senators in the Italian city-state of Venice.

Written by Celia Elliott

Although today (August 25) is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's presentation of his version of the telescope to the Venetian Senate, the Englishman Thomas Harriot actually made the first observation of the moon using a telescope in July 1609. Unfortunately for Harriot, Galileo published his observations first.

The National Geographic has a great interactive timeline on the development of the telescope, from Galileo's instrument to today's Large Binocular Telescope.

Physics Professors Jon Thaler and Mats Selen are currently working on a cosmology survey at the SOAR telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile (CTIO).

Madeline Stover is a physics doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying atmospheric dynamics applied to forest conservation. She interns as a science writer for Illinois Physics, where she also co-hosts the podcast Emergence along with fellow physics graduate student Mari Cieszynski. When Stover is not doing research or communications, she enjoys hosting her local radio show, singing with her band, and cooking with friends.

Daniel Inafuku graduated from Illinois Physics with a PhD and now works as a science writer. At Illinois, he conducted scientific research in mathematical biology and mathematical physics. In addition to his research interests, Daniel is a science video media creator.

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, Ph. D. is a science writer and an educator. She teaches college and high school physics and mathematics courses, and her writing has been published in popular science outlets such as WIRED, Scientific American, Physics World, and New Scientist. She earned a Ph. D. in Physics from UIUC in 2019 and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Garrett R. Williams is an Illinois Physics Ph.D. Candidate and science writer. He has been recognized as the winner of the 2020 APS History of Physics Essay Competition and as a finalist in the 2021 AAAS Science and Human Rights Essay Competition. He was also an invited author in the 2021 #BlackinPhysics Week series published by Physics Today and Physics World. 

 

Jamie Hendrickson is a writer and content creator in higher education communications. They earned their M.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021. In addition to their communications work, they are a published area studies scholar and Russian-to-English translator.

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, Ph. D. is a science writer and an educator. She teaches college and high school physics and mathematics courses, and her writing has been published in popular science outlets such as WIRED, Scientific American, Physics World, and New Scientist. She earned a Ph. D. in Physics from UIUC in 2019 and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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This story was published August 25, 2009.