Astronomy 161 - Introduction To Solar System Astronomy - Autumn 2007

Tycho reached the limits of what 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 describes his many discoveries with the telescope. These observations electrified Europe in the early 17th century, and set the stage for the final 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 2007 Oct 11 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.