Galileo's anniversay today. He was the first, I mean SECOND, to do telescopic astronomy.

[Bucky]

Thomas Harriot: A Telescopic Astronomer Before Galileo

ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2009) — This year the world celebrates the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), marking the 400th anniversary of the first drawings of celestial objects through a telescope. This first has long been attributed to Galileo Galilei, the Italian who went on to play a leading role in the 17th century scientific revolution. But astronomers and historians in the UK are keen to promote a lesser-known figure, English polymath Thomas Harriot, who made the first drawing of the Moon through a telescope several months earlier, in July 1609.

In a paper to be published in Astronomy and Geophysics, the journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), historian Dr Allan Chapman of the University of Oxford explains how Harriot not only preceded Galileo but went on to make maps of the Moon’s surface that would not be bettered for decades.

Harriot lived from 1560 to 1621. He studied at St Mary’s Hall (now part of Oriel College), Oxford, achieving his BA in 1580 before becoming a mathematical teacher and companion to the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. In the early 1590s Raleigh fell from royal favour and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Thomas Harriot = total LOSER! (imprisoned loser, that is! Ha-ha!)




                                                  "Because you're a loser! PS, I'm getting a statue at the Vatican, loser."
      "I suck"
    "PSS, they name shit on the Moon after me. What do you got? Nothing-- ha-ha!"


Other reference: Thomas Harriot, the Man Who Beat Galileo to the Moon

This is the map of the moon that loser drew.
Notice the lack of anything actually named "Harriot" on this map.

[berni_mccoy]

1. Thanks for posting this. Great info and not well known.

[NNadir]

2. Galileo got all the good press because of his caustic and derisive nature.

He actually wrote a book in which he put the words of the mortal idiot, Barbareni, also known under the silly alias "Pope Urban VIII" in the mouth of the a character called "Simplicio," Italian for "Fool," or "Ass," or as one might guess, "Simpleton."

Of course, "Simplicio" was offended by all of this, and used his power as chief dogmatist to intimidate Galileo in a purely bullying (and self serving way) but the fact is that the world barely remembers "Simplicio" at all except in his relations to Galileo, and then, to the extent Barbareni is remembered at all, he is remembered as, well, a fool.

In the eyes of history, Galileo wins.

[JAbuchan08]

3. I propose that we rename the moon "Thomas"

in honor of Thomas Harriot.

[Swede]

4. Shine on harvest Tom?

[JAbuchan08]

6. Blue Tom, you saw me standing alone....

without a dream in my heart
without a love of my own

[Bucky]

10. Those high school kids driving past my house were Tomming me.

[bananas]

5. It also looks like a Thomas' English Muffin

[jberryhill]

7. I does kind of suck that we have the only moon named "moon"

It's like having a god named "God"

[laconicsax]

8. It shows a lack of imagination.

The moon actually has a name: Luna, but loads of people don't know it.
The sun has a name too: Sol.

[jberryhill]

9. I Knew Someone Would Say That, But...

The fact that Latin speakers were unimaginative does not impress me either.

You might as well say that the sun is "soleil" in French. It still means "sun".

[bertman]

13. No shit, Sun. I mean, Son. Or Sol. Soleil. Solly. Whatever.

Does this mean that Moon Unit will have to change her name to Tom Unit?

[Bucky]

11. Blue Sol 3-A, you saw me standing alone....

It's only a paper Selene, hanging over a muslin tree...

[Bucky]

12. It's like Tarzan having a boy named "Boy"

Shit, at least the chimp sidekick got his own name.

[Dumak]

14. Call them "planetary satellites" instead of "moons" to avoid confusion

The Moon was named before anyone knew much about satellites orbiting other planets (let alone planets themselves), so eventually it became a common noun for them all.

Same with the Sun. I hate it when people call other stars "suns".
Our "planetary system" is called the Solar System.