Significance of 1609
In 1609, Galileo Galilei first turned one of his telescopes to the night sky and made astounding discoveries that changed mankind's conception of the world forever: mountains and craters on the Moon, a plethora of stars invisible to the naked eye, and moons around Jupiter. Astronomical observatories around the world promised to reveal how planets and stars are formed, how galaxies assemble and evolve, and what the structure and shape of our Universe actually are. In the same year, Johannes Kepler published his work Astronomia nova, in which he described the fundamental laws of planetary motions.
On 25 September 1608, Hans Lippershey, a young man from Middelburg, travelled to the Hague, the then capital of the Netherlands, to demonstrate one of his inventions to the Dutch government: the telescope. Although Hans was not awarded the patent, Galileo heard of this story and decided to use the "Dutch perspective glass" and point it towards the heavens.
Read more about this topic: International Year Of Astronomy
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