The sidereal messenger of Galileo Galilei : $b and a part of the preface to Kepler's Dioptrics containing the original account of Galileo's astronomical discoveriesGalilei, Galileo
History
The sidereal messenger of Galileo Galilei : $b and a part of the preface to Kepler's Dioptrics containing the original account of Galileo's astronomical discoveries
Galilei, Galileo
Astronomy -- Early works to 1800; Jupiter (Planet) -- Satellites
At this point, although I had not turned my thoughts at all upon the
approximation of the stars to one another, yet my surprise began to
be excited, how Jupiter could one day be found to the east of all the
aforesaid fixed stars when the day before it had been west of two of
them; and forthwith I became afraid lest the planet might have moved
differently from the calculation of astronomers, and so had passed
those stars by its own proper motion. I therefore waited for the next
night with the most intense longing, but I was disappointed of my hope,
for the sky was covered with clouds in every direction.
But on January 10th the stars appeared in the following position with
regard to Jupiter; there were two only, and both on the east side of
Jupiter, the third, as I thought, being hidden by the planet (Fig. 3).
They were situated just as before, exactly in the same straight line
with Jupiter, and along the Zodiac.
When I had seen these phenomena, as I knew that corresponding
changes of position could not by any means belong to Jupiter, and as,
moreover, I perceived that the stars which I saw had been always the
same, for there were no others either in front or behind, within a
great distance, along the Zodiac,—at length, changing from doubt into
surprise, I discovered that the interchange of position which I saw
belonged not to Jupiter, but to the stars to which my attention had
been drawn, and I thought therefore that they ought to be observed
henceforward with more attention and precision.
Accordingly, on January 11th I saw an arrangement of the following
kind (Fig. 4), namely, only two stars to the east of Jupiter, the
nearer of which was distant from Jupiter three times as far as from
the star further to the east; and the star furthest to the east was
nearly twice as large as the other one; whereas on the previous night
they had appeared nearly of equal magnitude. I therefore concluded,
and decided unhesitatingly, that there are three stars in the heavens
moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury round the Sun; which
at length was established as clear as daylight by numerous other
subsequent observations. These observations also established that there
are not only three, but four, erratic sidereal bodies performing their
revolutions round Jupiter, observations of whose changes of position
made with more exactness on succeeding nights the following account
will supply. I have measured also the intervals between them with the
telescope in the manner already explained. Besides this, I have given
the times of observation, especially when several were made in the
same night, for the revolutions of these planets are so swift that an
observer may generally get differences of position every hour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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