So, last night, 9 January 1610, Galileo was clouded out. 400 years ago tonight it was clear in Venice, so he turned his 20x power spyglass to Jupiter once more. He can see only two starlets! One has disappeared or is hiding. At this stage he cannot figure out what's happening. Remember, he has only three observations, and his telescope does not have setting circles or anything fancy like that. With three observations spanning just four nights he cannot yet rule out the weird possibility that there is something irregular about Jupiter's motion, an irregularity that would not be detectable to a naked eye astronomer. He's also intrigued by the fact that these unpredictable starlets are on a line parallel to the ecliptic. He actually calls them big stars because they seem so bright through his telescope.
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I have an interview about Galileo's discoveries of 1610 with BBC Radio 4 coming in February. I am interested in further commissions / talks / science writing
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