Haunted Observatory: Curiosities from the Astronomer's Cabinet by Richard Baum  (3)  £13.99

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Synopsis
The Dutch telescope and the Italian scientist Galileo have long enjoyed a durable connection in the popular mind - so much so that it seems this simple glass instrument transformed a rather modest middle-aged scholar into the bold icon of the Copernican Revolution. And yet the extraordinary speed with which the telescope changed the course of Galileo's life and early modern astronomy obscures the astronomer's own curiously delayed encounter with the instrument. This book considers the lapse between the telescope's creation in The Hague in 1608 and Galileo's alleged acquaintance with such news ten months later. In an inquiry into scientific and cultural history, Eileen Reeves explores two fundamental questions of intellectual accountability: what did Galileo know of the invention of the telescope, and when did he know it?The record suggests that Galileo, like several of his peers, initially misunderstood the basic design of the telescope. In seeking to explain the gap between the telescope's emergence and the alleged date of the astronomer's acquaintance with it, Reeves explores how and why information about the telescope was transmitted, suppressed, or misconstrued in the process.

Her revised version of events, rejecting the usual explanations of silence and idleness, is a revealing account of the role that misprision, error, and preconception play in the advancement of science.Along the way, Reeves offers a revised chronology of Galileo's life in a critical period and, more generally, shows how documents typically outside the scope of early modern natural philosophy - medieval romances, travel literature, and idle speculations - relate to two crucial events in the history of science.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   Window on the Universe, 3 April 2008 By  Dr. S. A. Mitton "Simon Mitton" (Cambridge UK) - See all my reviews    If you are strongly interested in the history of the physical sciences and astronomy then this is the book for you. If you thought that Galileo invented the astronomical telescope all of a piece while fiddling with lenses then you need to read this account to set the record straight. This is a major contribution to scholarship in which the long history of optics is beautifully described. The quest for telescopic vision goes way back to antiquity, with its mythical and legendary accounts of magical and mystical mirrors used to see far-off enemies and immolate unwelcome warships. Eileen Reeves reminds us that Galileo had long had an interest in optics, a subject that he taught at the University of Padua. Her meticulous detective work is strong on the period (almost a year) between the inventions of the Dutch telescope based on two lenses and a tube, and Galileo's spectacular success in improving the invention. All previous attempts at telescopic vision (there were many) had involved unweildy combinations of a concave mirror and a lens (it would take the genius of the future Isaac Newton to crack that problem). And all previous attempts appear to have concentrated on military or covert applications. Galileo not only greatly improved the instrument, he used it to sweep the skies, making great discoveries.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews