Our topic today is the early history of astronomy. could you tell us what century we are talking about here and what were the common beliefs at that time?
We start in the middle of the 16th century and we go to the beginning of the 17th century. This was a time when the common belief was that the earth was the center of the universe and did not move. so it was very difficult to disabuse people of that notion. Today every child knows that the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun once a year. but we know these things because they have told us. if you had to find out for yourself it would be extremely difficult. there aren’t many clues. the earth doesn’t feel like it’s moving.
You are reading: Books about history of astronomy
so this was very much the explosive century in which many great minds appeared to prove otherwise. one of the people at the forefront of that is nicolaus copernicus, who is at the center of owen gingerich’s book, the book no one read. Before we talk about the book, can you explain who Copernicus was?
This is someone who really changed the world because he turned our perception of the universe upside down. he dared to suggest that the earth was in motion, that it went round and round, which was a crazy idea at the time.
How did people react to your ideas?
He put his ideas into a book called On the Revolution. but she didn’t want to publish it for a long time because she was worried that he would be mocked. so when he came out the book he was dying and never really heard any of the reactions. and for a while there was no explosive reaction because the book is a very large, dense and difficult mathematical text written in Latin! so only an educated few could really appreciate his intent.
And that’s why 20th-century author and journalist Arthur Koestler dismissed it as “the book no one read,” something Owen Gingerich strives to correct with this book.
yes, he is referring to koestler’s comment with his title. this was the insult thrown against the book of copernicus because it is very long and mathematical. The interesting thing about gingerich’s book is that he writes about his own study of revolution. Over a period of 30 years, wherever he traveled, he searched for all extant copies, examining over 600 surviving sixteenth-century copies, and as he did so he noted that the book had not only been read but properly studied. he knew because the margins of the copies were filled with notes. so he was able to prove that it was, in fact, an extremely important book. it was also a very expensive book. it costs roughly the equivalent of one term’s tuition at university. so it was likely that the people who bought it would take very good care of it.
what kind of people were buying it?
galileo owned a copy. [johannes] kepler owned a copy. in fact, any astronomer or mathematician of that period would have owned that book.
With his next book we continue with Copernicus. This time you have chosen Robert Westman’s Copernican Question.
Robert Westman was interested in exploring the idea that Copernicus was also an astrologer as well as an astronomer. For many years it was thought that Copernicus paid no attention to astrology. but in his day, if you were an astronomer, you were also an astrologer. why else would you care about the positions of the planets? but he never wrote about astrology.
Why do you think Copernicus never mentioned astrology in his writings?
well this is what westman is trying to find out and one of the explanations he gives is that he planned to write a second book on astrology in addition to his book on astronomy. Copernicus in many ways was inspired by the revolution in a very famous Greek text by Ptolemy. Ptolemy wrote several books: one was just about the planets, where he tried to figure out their position, and then he wrote a separate book on astrology. Westman thinks that maybe Copernicus had the same intention, but he never wrote the other book. there is a lot of evidence linking him to other astrologers, which is credible and convincing. so he personally finds this idea fascinating. Westman is so good at the details he goes into: to determine if his theory is plausible or not. He looked at all the people Copernicus might have known and explored his links to astrology. and I thought he made a convincing argument.
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You have also written about Copernicus. Why, for you, is he such an important character in the history of astronomy?
because he had the courage to go against common wisdom and common sense. today it is difficult to imagine what strange idea she had. I also like the fact that instead of just imagining it, he also spent years making observations in the night sky to try to back up his theory. remember, he did not have a telescope or any instrument with lenses; he was just using the naked eye. this was all a matter of mapping the positions of the planets. I think it must have seemed crazy to him to expect the stars to revolve around the earth every 24 hours. he makes much more intuitive sense in terms of size and distance for the earth to move. but then you have the problem of the movement of the earth, which everyone thought was ridiculous.
your next choice is written by another of your heroes. you have chosen the personal account of galileo, sidereus nuncius, which translates as the sidereal messenger or starry messenger.
This is an exciting book. it is the moment in which astronomy becomes an observational science. Until the time of Galileo, the most that could be known about a planet was where it was. With his Galilean telescope he was able to determine the composition of the moon. he was also able to solve several long-standing mysteries, such as what is the milky way: looking through the telescope, he could see that it was made up of a myriad of stars. Perhaps his most exciting discovery was finding the moons of Jupiter. that is why he was able to tell the world: “the earth is not the only center of the revolution; there are these bodies circling around jupiter.”
“every child knows that the earth revolves around the sun. but if you had to find out for yourself it would be extremely difficult. there aren’t many clues.”
in the time of galileo, another objection to the movement of the earth was, what about the moon? how could the earth travel around the sun and take the moon with it? well here was jupiter with four moons and so, obviously, having moons was not an impediment to orbit around the sun. Whether you thought Jupiter orbited around the earth or around the sun, it was moving along with all those moons. and thus removed an obstacle to accepting the idea.
How did you manage to get your hands on the telescope?
He had heard that such a thing had been invented as a novelty, so he figured out how to build one. and although at first he considered it a military tool, which he passed on to the navy in italy to watch the horizon for enemy ships, he soon realized that he could turn it skyward. so he made these amazing discoveries and published them.
what kind of person does he meet like in the sidereal messenger?
a bright, inventive, religious and excited person who was open to new things. she was a huge character.
stillman drake’s book, galileo at work sounds like a good accompaniment to the sidereal messenger.
yes, this book really examines the daily life of galileo. Analyze what kind of correspondence he had with scientists from all over Europe. it also shows what his thinking was about various problems. is a close look at how he conducted his experiments and how he worked with others to shape his ideas.
Can you give me an example of one of the experiments you conducted?
devised an ingenious device to roll balls down an inclined plane and time their descent. in this way he discovered how bodies accelerate during free fall. Of course, he did not have a clock to time such small intervals, but he counted the moments by dripping water from a container and then weighed the drops of water.
Did you get help from other scientists?
yes, and sometimes he also received criticism from them. did not take criticism well. he was a very powerful opponent in a debate or even in correspondence because he was very intelligent. you really didn’t want to get into an argument with him.
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You mentioned being religious, how does that square with his scientific work?
galileo lived in italy in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and almost everyone was catholic. his own daughters were nuns and his sisters, for part of their lives at least, had been in the convent world, so this was largely their upbringing and his perspective. When he writes about his discoveries, he thanks God for being kind enough to make him the first person to see wonders that have been hidden in darkness for all the centuries before.
And the church had no problem with what it was doing?
not at that point. By the time he started agreeing out loud with Copernicus and writing about it in Italian and not Latin, it became more controversial. the sidereal messenger is written in latin, but soon after it changed to italian and that’s when it became a problem. His controversial views of him were investigated by the Roman Inquisition which concluded that his views could only be supported as a possibility and not as established fact, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. p>
An aspect of him that is not so well known, which gives a good idea of his character, is found in the letters he wrote to his daughter, which I know you have written about.
He had a very close relationship with one of his daughters and a correspondence that was lifelong for her. when I heard about her and the letters they wrote I was surprised. given the relationship he had with the church in her later life, I always assumed that he was not religious and that he was a modern scientist with no beliefs. but when i found out that he had daughters who were nuns he made me think that many of the things he had learned about galileo were wrong. so that was the impetus to find the letters from him and translate them into english and see what they said about who he was.
What kind of relationship did this very intelligent man have with his daughter?
He was very close and affectionate. in fact, he outlived her. she died quite young. he didn’t really discuss her work with her. There are only a couple of references in her letters, but she did a lot of copy work for him. and she may have helped him copy the manuscript of her great book. the letters are not about science, they are about things that happen in the convent and the help she needs from him. so that you have a clearer idea of what he was like as a man.
Finally, he has chosen Sleepwalkers by Arthur Koestler, which is a summary of that period, although he is not as complimentary about Copernicus and Galileo as the other authors he has chosen.
arthur koestler was a journalist interested in science. he was really fascinated by this topic. so this book traces the early history of astronomy because he too found it fascinating. Unfortunately, as you say, he didn’t like either Copernicus or Galileo. the only one he seems to have really liked was kepler. so one reads his book with skepticism. but it is a book that was widely read and had a tremendous influence on people. even though it came out in the 1950s, you still know people who will talk about that book. and for many it was the book that made them interested in astronomy. I also read it years ago and it has stayed with me.
Why do you think he was so scathing about Copernicus and Galileo?
It’s hard to say. found Copernicus boring, and I admit that his book on revolution is boring reading for a person who is not capable of understanding mathematics. but Copernicus is far from boring. From my own research, I can tell you that it was incomparable. he did all this work for his own interest: he was not part of a university, but he worked completely alone. he was also a doctor and had a church job that involved him in active warfare. so his life was rich and colorful, although it is true that his book would probably put you to sleep.
So what was the next stage of observation after Copernicus and Galileo?
What was needed was someone to come and make physical and mathematical sense of everything. and that person was johannes kepler and then isaac newton. Kepler was the one who had access to truly exceptional data compiled by Tycho Brahe. the two scientists made an interesting couple. they had no personality traits in common, but their work brought them together. They began their collaboration at the beginning of the 17th century. tycho was danish and kepler was german but they worked together in prague for emperor rudolf ii. Tycho died shortly after their collaboration began. and Kepler won a fight to get access to the data. tycho’s family was a bit difficult on that front, but they managed to win the right to use the data and were able to create tables that were the best anyone had ever seen on the positions of the planets. Kepler was able to show that the orbits were not circular, as Copernicus believed, but elliptical. with that advance he achieved the greatest understanding up to that time of the movement of the planets.
what do you think is the big question in astronomy right now that is comparable to the things they were discovering?
We all wonder what the nature of dark matter and dark energy is. these mysterious entities make up most of the universe and no one knows what they are. when they do, we’ll have another big inside-out turn.
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