Galileo telescopes random notes and information

Reference and

More notes and additional ways of saying the same thing
Galileo Galilei's Telescopes.

The rest of the page below are unedited bits and pieces. That were put together as we were thinking our way through the project. They show what a laboratory looks like that made measurements relevant in the spectroscope study of stars. More arguments about the importance of these replicas to help people understand a little bit more about the business aspects of basic scientific research.

They will most likely be edited out as we clean up the web site.

Galileo's Telescopes and Pieces of Telescopes. We are told ref 1a, 2a that Galileo built a number, maybe as many as 60 telescopes and lens sets, in the process of doing and reporting his famous research work, Some believe that only the objective lens of "the data scopes" is left and that's broken into several pieces.

Not all of the telescopes he built or had built were used for research data purposes. But there are two telescopes left from this era which are very important to us today, especially a beautiful leather covered scope and a companion for comparison demonstrates what a basic research scientist has to go through to get funding for his work. A very serious problem that still exist today. There are two telescopes that are assigned to Galileo that have survived, one a roughly built paper covered working telescope, and the other a leather covered presentation telescope, both are n display at the IMSS in Florence Italy. The original leather telescope that we are replicating has become as important, in later years, as the pure research telescopes. There are at least two compelling reasons that come to mind for this.

The first reason is because this telescope, exists because it was beautifully built. It used an ingenious wood stave design that allowed the various diameters of the scope to be easily fabricated from the same flexible construction material It was beautifully covered with leather of different colors and embossed with myriad patterns of elegant gold tooling. Since it was a piece of art it undoubtedly was treated with greater consideration which accounts for its long lifetime. So in a sense when you visits the little leather telescope or its replica be assured that Galileo intended it as a work of beautiful art for your deserving eyes and that he is personally offering it to you for your inspection.

The second reason for its importance is that this piece of art served as a presentation instrument for Galileo when he was announcing his extraordinary findings to those of wealth and power that controlled the financing of his scientific work. He used it as a communicating tool, a grand gift to his sponsor. It still servers in this role today.
It is a living demonstration that scientists even with their current track record still have to communicate across many borders, perhaps even gild the Lilly as Galileo did, to obtain support for their basic research work. Scientists still have to struggle for endorsements of their studies from the government and public on technically matters of great concern, such as environmental research, stem cell research, etc. It reminds us that science and religion can still be confrontational and that the military is still one of the strongest supporters of science.

But its greatest value is that it has drawn people together to marvel at the sites to be seen in the sky through two little pieces of glass. There is a macro world out there that is still to be discovered and understood. So this famous little leather telescope, and hopefully also its replica, is still being pressed into the same service today as it was originally by Galileo in 1600. It helps people gain more enjoyment and a better understanding of the universe we share with others.

Appendix

Here is a url for a few more details of the trip:
photos of the telescope, more of the IMSS staff,
the museum and the country side.

* Why is it important to make a museum grade replica in its most complete form inside and out? Why spend hundreds of hours of research and building such a replica?

1st, One can appreciate the telescope more because it is not an almost replica, only skin deep, made out of plastic or cardboard, with an almost correct optics and dimensions. It serves as a more honest display for the public to visit and study.

2nd, Its a tactile time capsule. It is a more complete record than a digital or paper one It is what the original telescope is today. with all of its modification over the past 400 years. Further, if for some catastrophic reason the original is lost there is at least a precise replica to help keep the record straight as to what it was like in 2006.

3rd, Its has a greater research and teaching value. The rather unique method in construction of this telescope helps one to judge and understand the mechanical aptitudes of Galileo and his associates.

4th, It helps one get a clearer picture of the early experimenting in the kinds of materials, tools, and techniques that had been tried for constructing telescopes as a commercial opportunity. It demonstrates another first for Galileo. A type of telescope tube construction that was the forerunner of some of the large polygon wood telescopes. and the use of resin composite construction to make telescope tubes and lens holders more rugged and resistant to the vagaries of moisture and rough handling.

5 fifth, Then there is the poetry part of life. If one should be the lucky enough to handle and use a faithfully produced replica one would get the full experience that Galileo had when he was using the telescope, the same visual and tactual sensations that Galileo had four hundred years ago. You would find all the good and not so good design and construction issues, the cranky limited field of view, the color and other optical aberration in the image, its firm light weight constructions. Your experience would be an accurate replication of Galileo's experience giving one a more emotional appreciation for Galileo's skill and intuitive nature.

6th, From a practical point of view it has higher monetary value if the instrument has been faithfully reproduced.

There is a second question in replication often brought up for debate.

After spending all the effort required to produce a museum quality clone inside and out (optics, supporting structure and decorations) does it make sense to destroy all this careful work with sand paper, steel wool, dyes, acids, and alkali solutions in the name of "antiquing" it?

There are many ways of looking at this question. I've chosen four.

1 , How would Galileo feel about this? Just put yourself in Galileo's place . You come back to your laboratory after having a tasty lunch and you find that one of your technicians has taken your most beautiful brand new presentation telescope and worked it over to make it look like it's 400 years old. Would you be upset or happy because it no longer shows the quality of materials and craftsmanship you expended?

Would you want to show this brand new beautiful instrument as a representation of your work or antique it with sand paper, steel wool, dyes, acids, and alkali solutions? At any rate it would not be as disappointing as being put into jail for the rest of your life for interpreting the data from the telescope in a non-Church supported theory.

2, What would you feel about Galileo's treatment of you? If Galileo were alive today and came to give you, or show you one of his telescopes for the purpose of telling you his story or to convince you to support your local scientist, would you take him more or less seriously if he presented you a with sand papered, steel-woolen, dyed, acid and alkali treated scope or a brand new carefully crafted instrument?

3,Wouldn't visitors lose a truer connection between themselves and Galileo? Is it not better and more impressive to you or your visitors that when the telescope is presented for your inspection, that you really experience the feeling of what it must have been like to be there when the telescope was first introduced: shiny, new, and grandest in its glory rather than being presented with one that contained all the wear and tear of a four hundred year old instrument?

4, What about giving respect and honor to those who have given us something of value in the past? Isn't the best way of honoring one of the finest, most famous, though poorly treated early experimental scientists by displaying a beautiful replication of his instrument when it was splendidly new and young just like Galileo, at the top of his world?

inside an outside. This gives the proud owner a one upsmanship in something very famous and extraordinarily rare.

jcm/rum

A very brief and different perspective of astronomy today These authors were one of the many small teams in the laboratories around the world collecting data and testing theories of ionized gases, useful for understanding terrestrial plasmas, and stellar atmospheres. Below is one of the laboratories we put together for these studies with one of our laboratory stars. We made spectrographic measurements of the light coming off plasma running up to 35,000 degrees centigrade. We studied the radiation from the vacuum ultraviolet 600 angstroms to 10 microns in the infrared and compared these data to predictions using quantum mechanical calculations
See Jim and Rhoda for more of the details
A sample of a basic research paper about Nitrogen Radiation

Astronomy is quite different than in Galileo's day. The telescope is no longer the king .
Physic labs like the one above is where quantitative astronomy is done these days .

The telescope has been reduced to a electromagnetic radiation gathering and direction indicating device. The instruments connected to the telescope the spectroscopes/graphs etc. and computers for the analysis of the light gathered is where most of the discoveries are being made, and this is what today's research astronomy is really all about, lab work.

Many of these studies are and were being done in a laboratories, such as above , using miniature laboratory stars (arc) like the one above devised and used by these authors to study the gases in the stellar atmospheres at temperatures upwards to 30,000 C . They gathered radiation, thermal and electrical data testing

the various quantum mechanical calculation of spectral line emission and line broadening.

The electrical and thermal conductivities,

the high temperature chemistry,

the JxB terms that are so important to the things in astrophysics.

The authors also used their laboratory star to make measurements of high temperature air for NASA and the military which used the data for the design of the Apollo, Shuttle and intercontinental ballistic missiles heat shields. Other government contracts for fire ball growth of nuclear explosions, theoretical and experimental studies of lightning , counter measures of heat and laser seeking missiles.

In Genesis I God says let there be light and these authors were glad he did because they spent most of their professional lives making a comfortable living studying it. Jim & Rhoda Morris

Above is a pewter figure of an astronaut on the moon carrying a miniaturized version one of our replicas of Galileo's telescope. Is this is enough credit to Galileo showing his first step in the process of looking beyond us.

Above the astronaut's head, like the Northern lights, is the spectrum of very hot air, 5,000 to 14,000degree C., The spectrum, showing molecular bands and atomic lines, was made by one of our grand daughters for a science fair project, and was very similar to the spectra, with less resolution, the authors used for studying the heat transferred to the heat shields of re entering space vehicles during their reentry.

In the bottom images is shown a sample of the heat shield (part of our collection) used on the Apollo command module. Its being held in the hands by two young boys who used it for their science fair project. The heat shield has to fend off the hot air generated on reentry so that the thing it is shielding wont burn up reentering the atmosphere as one of our recent shuttles demonstrated, so sadly, piece by piece across half of the U. S. .

Apollo heat shield test samples

There Are No Words Powerful Enough To Express The Importance Of Basic Scientific Research To Our Past, Present, And Future.

References

Ref 1 The American Heritage Dictionary

1a. Catalogue of Early Telescopes by Albert Van Helden 1999 Istituto e Museo di Storia Scienza dell Scienza, Firenzze

2a. Sidereus or The Sidereal Messenger Galileo Galilei Translated with introduction, conclusion, and notes by Albert Van Helden The university of Chicago Press Chicago and London1989

We thank Paul Valleli of Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston for discussions on adjustments of the focal length of the objective, recommending several source of information and generally paving a path to many resources including contacting Peter Abrahams of the Antique Telescope Society who very kindly supplied the references below. Also the is a well rounded collection of references and relevant information pictures plus interesting critiques maintained by Jim Mosher. Tom Pope both experience scientist.

1, Baxandall, David. Replicas of Two Galileo Telescopes.
Transactions of the
Optical Society 25:3, (January 1924) 141-144. (measurements
Galilean optics)

2 Pettit, Edison. A Telescope of Galileo. Publications of the
Astronomical
Society of the Pacific 51 (June 1939) 147-150. (#301) (replica
by Cipriani)

3(Galileo) Barr, E. Scott. Men & Milestones in Optics, III: Galileo
Galilei.
Applied Optics 3:12 (1964) 1321-1328.

4(Galileo) Drake, Stillman. Galileo Gleanings VI: Galileo's First
Telescopes at
Padua and Venice. Isis 50:3 (Sept. 1959) 245-254.

5(Galileo) Drake, Stillman. Galileo's First Telescopes at Padua
and Venice. Isis
50 (1959) 245-54.

6(Galileo) Greco, Vincenzo, G. Molesini, & F. Quercioli. Optical
tests of
Galileo's lenses. Nature 358 (July 9, 1992) 101. <& .pdf>

7(Galileo) Greco, Vincenzo et. al. Telescopes of Galileo. Applied
Optics 32 #31
(Nov. 1993) 6219.

8(Galileo) Miniati, Mara. Examination of an Antique Telescope.
Nuncius 9:2
(1994) 677-682.

9 (Galileo) Ringwood, Stephen. A Galilean telescope. Quarterly
Journal of the
Royal Astronomical Society 35 (1994) 43-50.

10 (Galileo) Sonnefeld, August. Optical data of Galileo Galilei's
celestial
telescope. Jena Review #6 (1962) 207-212. <.jpg>

11 (Galileo)Westfall, Richard. Science and Patronage: Galileo and
the Telescope.
Isis 76 (1985) 11-30. <& .pdf,.tif>

12 (Galileo) Zik, Yaakov. Galileo and the Telescope. Nuncius 14:1
(1999) 31-67.
--------------
13 (Galileo) Dupré, Sven. Galileo, the Telescope, and the Science
of Optics in the
Sixteenth Century: A Case Study of Instrumental Practice in Art
and Science.
PhD Dissertation, Universiteit Gent, Belgium, 2002. 366pp.
--------
14 (Galileo) Miniati, Mara, et al. Examination of a terrestrial
telescope with the
signature of Galileo. Optik 101:3 (Jan. 1996) 140-142.

15 (Galileo) Greco, Vincenzo et. al. Modern Optical Testing on the
Lenses of
Galileo. pp110-121, Paolo Mazzoldi, ed.; From Galileo's
Occhialino to
16 Optoelectronics, conference Padova June 1992; Singapore:
World Scientific, 1993.
17 WikipediA
More on Galileo, Galileo and his pendulum.

Click to see Reference 1 resin composite construction

-------------------------------------------------------

ref replica Hale had made

Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Title: A Telescope of Galileo
Authors: Pettit, E.
Journal: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 51, No. 301, p.147
Bibliographic Code: 1939PASP ..51 .147P
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1939PASP ..51 .147P

Work in progress random ways of saying the same thing

General comments about how science works and how to increase it funding. Possible uses of the Galileo telescope to show the public that it is an age old problem that has to be fixed.
Humans have a strong inquisitive nature to study and understand how things work. It is the eminent genetic characteristic that distinguish us from all other life forms. We are born with it. We don't have a choice. This interest in the basic science of things has changed every aspect of our lives and everything we do in major ways ! It is so natural to us that we take it all for granted. For those who never considered the value of science stop and ask yourself thoughtfully what life would be like today had everyone simply stopped learning the science of things before start of the stone age?

In spite of this importance, basic research has always been slowed down by our leaders who assign a low priority to its funding accept ---- when business can make a profit from it, which is good, or by our political leaders who feel the need of more powerful weapons of war to protect us from our enemies. (didn't some one in the comics once say that we have met the enemy and they is us?????????? ). For the most part we as individuals are left with the spin offs of the knowledge gained from these efforts.
Not everyone needs to be intimately acquainted with scientific principles but everyone needs to know about science , and the scientist needs to carry out their work. .The little leather telescope and it's replicas have a marvelous dramatic and important story to tell about how science works.

Our Galilean Syndrome
Galileo was found guilty as charged. Recanting the truth, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of being burned to death, his only other choice. The story shows how little a scientist 1600 had to do to get into trouble. Putting two little pieces of chipped glass in a cardboard tube, showing people the wonderful things in the heavens, expanding our knowledge. of the world, was enough to be to jailed for life.

Today a couple of grams of stem cells and intentions, or ice cores from the south pole looking for global warming can be troublesome to us. At least in the States we don't use the fire and stake punishment anymore to get rid of unwanted science. We pass laws forbidding the unwanted science some of them carrying criminal punishment. We get "our" government officials to reduce or stop the funding of that unwanted science.

Basic scientific research is our future!
There are No Words Powerful Enough to express the importance of basic scientific research, to our past, present, and future.

Unfortunately there is evidence that in the U.S., students are drifting away from careers in science, even the rate of foreign student coming to our graduate universities to get their degrees and become citizens has drop by large percentages! There is lots of data from responsible sources showing these alarming trends. For example --In 2004 China graduated 500,000 engineers, India 200,000 compared to U.S.70,000 even when taking the per capita differences its a worrisome picture. Its encouraging to see the over all world growth in engineering and science , But disappointing to watch high tech U.S. becoming low tech U.S. ---for more info go to .
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8401president.htmlhtml

Our hope and our goal is that this very fine, very beautiful, telescope and its replica's will motivate us to stop for a moment, to think and learn about not just the optics with its very narrow field of view, but the much larger real image of Galileo and his world, the world of scientists and of their science, their personal, business, political, and religious worlds; to reflect on how vulnerable science and its very small community of scientists are to the collision between these power centers Hopefully this understanding will help bring about, not just a truce but, a fusion of all these valuable, well intentioned, powerful forces creating an energy of cooperation between them that will benefit us all. Basic Science and basic researchers will always need our help.

These days knowing how natural science and the basic research scientist fit into our lives is a life and death issue to each of us. (DNA......Stem Cells...... Weapons of Mass Destruction------etc. all directly affect our physical, mental health and wellbeing).

Galileo, his telescopes/spyglasses with their 400 year old dramatic story is a bench mark for comparing the progress we have made in 400 year for providing a rational environment for   basic research scientist today! The alarming issue in this comparison is that in spite of the fact that we have discovered allot about how we work in the last 400 years and the results of this knowledge has made our world demonstratively safer ( today's average lifespan is 80 years compared with 37 years in Galileo's time in technically advanced nations). We see examples of much of this same knowledge being miss used in dangerous ways every day through actions of a tiny fraction of us namely our leaders.

Most of us have been told that a fanatic few can kill hundred of thousands to million of us by pushing a single button on a weapon of mass destruction.

Yet most of us are not in the constructive action mode and may not really understand that It is not what we know about natures secrets but what we do with this information that is really important. This knowledge belong to us (the public) for our use not to our leaders. We need to do more basic research not less to help us learn how to stop this non productive circle of madness. The solution is not to cut back on basic research leaving us with the same tired old methods, methods which   have been proven time and time again not to solved any of the problem that we face today but has continuously lead us to senseless wars with each other and with the very planet we live on.

So in writing this web site we have asked ourselves---- is just knowing who invented the telescope and how it works really important to us?

We think not -------    But

The story of Galileo and his telescopes/spyglasses should be used as a bench mark and teaching tool to show us how basic research in science works and what needs to be fixed to make it work better. It would be useful to put this learning experience of how basic research works following Galileo's example on the top of our "important things to do list".

Natural science and scientist need our help at the funding source.

The Importance of replicating Galileo's Telescope. The only Telescope in the world with TWO Significant Images.

Professionals have found that replicas of Galileo's beautiful and high quality telescope, attracts and holds attention of the those around it. Galileo used it in his quest for funding and recognition. This approach is alive and well today with an image sharper than any other telescope in the world. Displaying the leather replica, which one see's in the dramatic picture above is an excellent dramatic visual attention getting tool. The professional media community whose job is to get and hold people's attention, has indorsed it by using our replica in a number of their TV programs about science and famous scientist from Galileo to Einstein.

This beautiful leather Galileo's Telescope is doubly important because it is one of the few telescopes in the world that has two images! The brightness ratio of the two images is high, the contrast ratio is very low, the aberrations of the images are coupled resulting in substantial blurring. Many scientist have not noticed the second image. Others have noticed it but not worked on it, leaving us with one of the most important unsolved problem in science, The Galilean Syndrome.

Expressed from the personal drama approach, This telescope plays a crucial role in teaching by historical example the hidden aspects of science, its business, its politics, the ethical concerns. WE (all of us) need help in stemming the tide of the Galilean syndrome.

The picture above with the telescope in center stage, dressed in its very best attire is very beautiful and represents a very dramatic moment in the science of 1600 and today.

There are important issues to high light when one gets the audience with the telescope in front of them!
The audience will include those who love hi tech gadgets but may be indifferent to the scientific details,
It probably will include the very important tax paying citizen who pays for most of the basic scientific research.
The audience may only glance at the telescope a few seconds. at best a minute of their time.
Now could be time to help each other understand not how the optics of the Galileo telescope works (poorly at best) but the bigger picture of how Our (all of us) science works. Its goals, its needs a combined effort to rid or reduce the consequence of the Galilean Syndrome.

We must accept more responsibility to help us be more aware that both the scientific community and the public desperately need each others help.

The bottom line message put into more poetic terms,
spoken more eloquently,
by one of our famous fallen sponsors of science,
especially of the space program.

Ask not what our science can do for us, ask what we can do for our science.

Just 5 minutes of our time calling your Senators and Representative simply expressing" We need more support for basic research" would be very helpful. Science and scientist need our help. Go to Basic scientific research is our future! for help, to be more of help, for our science.

More notes and additional ways of saying the same thing
Galileo Galilei's Telescopes.
A journal of the project's research and assembly
by Jim & Rhoda Morris

Introduction The what, why, and how of this project.

The What We have built two of these beautiful instruments. One goes on exhibit at Griffith Observatory October 2006. The other served as a prototype and backup during the building process. Each has nearly 100 parts and over 400 hot gilded stampings. It has taken upwards 1200 man hours of research and shop time to build them. Tolerances are within approximately 1.5 % of the original, most times closer both inside and outside. In this web page we go into a detail description of the internal, external parts of this internationally famous telescope showing a number surprising building details not generally known to average Galilean buff.

Many people have helped us in this job. The authors thank all of those who helped with donations of time, material, advice, encouragement and patience. You all have done a great job. Your help will be a lasting contribution to our understanding of the Pernicious Galilean Syndrome.

The Why We Have Spent So Much Effort On Such A Faithful Replication. . These telescopes are symbols or reminders to support basic scientific research and to avoid becoming a victim of the Pernicious Galilean Syndrome The originals have been faithful to the cause, the replicas cannot be any less faithful. In all likelihood very few replica's will ever be built to this precision and with such care and with the lucky opportunity to be displayed so openly to the public.. They deserve the best for the best.

If Galileo's telescopes could talk they would shows us by example the unproductive, unnecessary quagmire that science faces as part of its every day work caused by emotionally based opinions. The TELESCOPES AND THEIR REPLICAS tell us that 400 years have passed and we still do not have a satisfactory solution to this time and resource consuming issue of ejection of scientific models and discoveries. When we visit these telescopes or read about them we should be guided to study them and their story intellectually. It will remind us that that science belong to us we still have lots work to do to solve this problem and that we should get on with it.

HERE IS Real data both good and bad to digest; In the year of 2004 China graduated 400,000 and India graduated 200,000 engineers while we in the U.S. we graduated 60,000. China leaders are mostly engineer and scientist and their is economy growing at an all time rate and their citizens along with it. Our government are lawyers sprinkled with doctors and were are loosing skilled jobs at a rate unprecedented in our wonderful country history. Visit our website for more information.

The Synopsis of Galileo's and Science's Tragic Story
It is an interesting, true story most of us can appreciate in our heart and head. The lessons surrounding these telescopes shows the dramatic moments of glory and the depths of frustrations in basic science. The famous Galileo telescopes began their life as weapons of war. They were designed as spy glasses to be used to spy on the enemy at a safe distance. Galileo traded his rights of ownership for a raise in salary and a tenure at his university. Sound familiar? When he turned it to the sky he discovered that God had made a much larger universe than the Church and Government was giving God credit for. This experience in his scientific work was filled with high drama . He barely escaped being burned alive at the stake and had to tell everyone that he was wrong about God having a more sophisticated universe than the opinions a few leaders of the Church and Government. Thus having seen the light he was only put under house arrest for the rest of his life! It is a strong image of major collisions about minor issues that new discoveries get caught in between powerful forces in our lives, Religion, Politics, Business, and Science.

The Playing Field of a Struggle That is Not a Game That all of us player in.
These telescopes remind us that the voices of politics, religion, and business have a very powerful influence over the funding and acceptance of scientific discoveries even though these power centers don't have leaders wise or informed enough to have this responsibility. The voice of science by comparison is like a whisper in a hurricane. Few of us are permitted to hear directly the cries for help from the basic scientific research community even though their discoveries of how things in nature work are of great benefit to all of us.

The Irony of it All Comparison to the trouble they caused these remarkable and beautiful telescopes are tiny physically. They weigh less than a pound. They carry with them two little pieces of glass, fixed in a skinny home made tube, and have marginal optics to study the stars, but by to days standards, 400 hundred years after their birth, they still give us a near perfect image of how large the conflicts between the power centers and science can get and how damaging they can become.

Galileo's telescopes and their replicas are steadfast. They may be battered from their 400 year journey but they continue to urge each of us to help the basic researchers with their struggle for increased funding and decreased the subjectively based political censorship of their data.

SOS Save Our Science From the Obtuse Mire. A 3 minute telephone call to your federal and state congressman passing along a 7 word message (Please increase funding for basic scientific research) is all you will need to say. Your congress person will understand you perfectly ----It will help basic research more than you will ever know. and in the future will help you.

About this website and the Galileo telescope projects for the Griffith observatory and Adler Planetarium and how these replicas can help us understand the very important business of science.

This website is about the precise recreation of these telescopes and presents insight into Galileo as a Teacher, Basic Research Scientist, Applied Scientist, Engineer and Entrepreneur from the eyes of two senior level technical observers. We come with experience in experimental basic, applied research, and new product development which has been helpful to us in replicating these instruments. The added experience we gained in building them has given us a useful technical insight into Galileo technical work which we hope will be useful to those who study Galileo and the environment he worked in.

The two rules we used in carrying out this work are.

Rule 1, We sense that these instruments have a significant cultural importance's therefore accuracy in replicating these telescope is important if they are to taken seriously as symbols of Galileo dramatic story, a very powerful, a very important story that all of us need to pay attention to.

Rule 2, We have stayed away from the personalities, the family issues, and the what, where, and when of inventor-ship that some commercial and hobby bio-authors dwell on. There is more than enough data to suggest that Gossipy personal views of Galileo- private life which are mostly guesses trivialize the importance of the Galileo story diverting us from the real issues which are so important to all of us, the vigorous public and political support needed by basic scientific research.

It saddens the authors when we read critical comments about Galileo work from reviewers that have little to no hands on experience in the many roles that Galileo played throughout his technical career. These authors muddy the waters of what science and engineering is all about.

Galileo's telescopes carry with them very important examples of the religious political and commercial trials and tribulations that our scientist have to deal with as part of their daily chores. These extracurricular duties are created by non scientist slowing down the delivery of new valuable scientific discoveries to us by leaders who find it difficult to understand what science is all about. We allow these leaders to slow down and deprive all of us cures for costly debilitating illnesses. They slow down the discoveries that could bring down the cost of just living a healthy satisfying higher quality of life.

Because it is so very important, we have included our concerns for the future of science and its application in this country. We take note of the fantastic increase in life expectancy for humans living in technology-supporting countries and, on the other hand, the shortening of the life of the planet and other livings things as we have come to know them. These are not simply political, financial or religious issues they are moral issues. We humans are making dangerously large changes in old mother earth.

Respectfully Yours, Jim & Rhoda Morris

First Light -- First test of the optics of our replica. The non Galileo real test was made using the Foucault knife edge method

Galileo's initial telescope work was toward developing it as a weapon of war (the spy glass). He traded rights of his design for a raise in salary and a tenured position as, a teacher and research worker. Things have not changed in 400 year. Today's Basic research scientists go through the same struggle to get funding. The chief role of the Hubble Telescope is for gathering data for Star wars which has been one of the most important incentive for today's astronomy, the mapping and studying of the heavens so that we don't waste our anti- ballistic weapons shooting at changes in the Orion's nebula, etc .

Galileo's first optical tests were probably similar to ours (that is looking around the neighborhood with his high power telescopes.

Our first image on the upper right hand corner was taken through the telescope which is in the lower left hand corner. (note the dot of light on the ocular.) the image was the upper windows of a building 400ft. away.

We chose the cross hatch of the window as a crude optical test chart giving us a day time qualitative test of the optics.

It was only later that we noticed that this image had the general appearance of a Christian cross, symbolically ironic considering the challenging relationship between Galileo and the Church. This compelled us to slip in a picture of Galileo as he probably looked when he made his famous discoveries while exploring the heavens'

Building a museum grade replica of Galileo's 400 years old telescopes has its special considerations if one is to produce a high quality replica which represents what it would have looked like new. The telescopes as seen today have 400 years of repairs, poorly documented modifications, inventory errors that make it difficult to determine what they looked like new. The authors believe that the best replicating has to be done with seasoned experimental scientists acquainted with the environment that Galileo, his shop workers , and fellow scientist lived and worked in. The replicator's have to have a keen sense of working skills in each of the steps necessary to make these early instruments as accurately as possible including the original errors that were built into the telescope. Said another way The builders have to have considerable practical experience working as experimental scientist to get the most likely answer to the how and why questions that come up during the replication. They are also absolutely essential when judging the quality of the scientist who commissioned the instrument and to those crafts-people who originally built the instrument. In making decisions during the replication of these telescopes there were many questions searching for answers which we needed to achieve for a high level of accuracy in making the replicas. The authors give you below a partial list but typical list of questions we had to get answers for.

Typical questions that had to be answered in making a museum quality replica of Galileo's telescopes.

Should we make the telescope tube out of cardboard as most replicators have done to save time and cost or use the stave type of construction that we found while visiting the originals at the IMSS?.
How accurate do we want the focal length of the lenses to be and why? Special lens sizes can cost hundreds of dollars compared to the $30 standard sizes? Galileo used a 980mm f.l. lens to days standard is 1000mm.
Is the present "add on" eyepiece and its housing for the leather telescope represent orginal equipment or a 1700 add on replacing a plano-concave original?
How much detail should we include in the hot stamping dies and their application for the gold embossing do we have to do to get it right? There over 400 individual stampings each applied one at a time as was done on the original. How do we keep the cost under control in making the hot stamped dies? Or do we use look almost alike dies?
How close to the dimensions of the existing telescopes should we build the replicas to?
How much web space should we use to explain why we have made these telescopes so exact especially on parts no one will ever see?
Should we bothered to cover the reasons why double sided convex lens are used in the drawing of Galileo optics yet the lenses used were piano convex?
Do we antique these telescopes or not?
Should we demonstrate what one really observes looking through the telescope?

We have treated this website as a diary or rough journal expressing our thoughts and actions not only as skilled trades people but as senior scientist replicating these telescopes. We have attempted to cover every aspect in building them including bits and pieces of the all important background business that is seldom made available to the public.

Rule 2, Haphazardly put together replicas would be insulting to the visitors, of any museum, and to what scientific community and science stands for. Mistakes in any project happen but willfully miss leading people with bad data is not tolerated in the scientific community.

Rule 3, We have stayed away from the personalities, the family issues, and the what, where, and when of inventor-ship that some commercial and hobby bio-authors dwell on sort of searching for a god like hero with clay feet . There is more than enough data to suggest that Gossipy personal views of Galileo- private life which are mostly guesses trivialize the importance of the Galileo story diverting us from the real issues which are so important to all of us, the vigorous support needed by basic scientific research.

It saddens the authors when we read critical comments about Galileo work from a reviewer that has had little to no on hands experience in the many roles that Galileo played throughout his technical career. These authors muddy the waters so that few really learn from this kind of writing what science and engineering is all about. We need to actively recognizes that we have to help those in leadership roles to understand how Important science and especially basic scientific research Is to each of us and not to repeat the Galileo story over and over again.

Galileo-s telescopes carry with them very important examples of the religious political and commercial trials and tribulations that our scientist have to deal with as part of their daily chores. These extracurricular duties are created by non scientist slowing down the delivery of new valuable scientific discoveries to us by leaders who find it difficult to understand what science is all about. We allow these leaders to slow down and deprive all of us cures for costly debilitating illnesses. They slow down the discoveries that could bring down the cost of just living a healthy satisfying higher quality of life.

Because it is so very important, we have included our concerns for the future of science and its application in this country We take note of the fantastic increase in life expectancy for humans living in technology-supporting countries and, on the other hand, the shortening of the life of the planet and other livings things as we have come to know them are not political, financial or religious issues they are moral issues. We humans are making dangerously large changes in old mother earth.

The three dimensions of science Time, length, and mass without them darkness prevails.

There Are No Words Powerful Enough To Express The Importance Of Basic Scientific Research To Our Past, Present, And Future.

Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)