That's really interesting, Kurt. I checked the drawings and some are pretty good. It's too bad he didn't publish. -- Joe --- On Tue, 12/30/08, Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote: From: Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Thomas Harriot - first reported astronomical telescope use To: "Utah Astronomy List Serv" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 4:58 PM In the December 2008 issue of the J. Br. Astron. Assoc., historian Allan Chapman << url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Chapman_(historian) >> presents a telescopic drawing of the Moon dated July 26, 1609 by early English astronomer Thomas Harriot. The drawing is no _Sidereus Nuncius_, but is noteworthy in that it predates Galileo's earliest reported use of a telescope to view astronomical objects. Chapman places Galileo's first astronomical use of a telescope in late November or December 1609. IMHO, Harriot's lunar drawing is very crude and does nothing to displace the preeminance of Galileo's more detailed drawings and analysis in _Sidereus Nuncius_. Galileo also was the first to publish. Harriot's drawings were unpublished. The earlier Harriot observation is also mentioned in the online Galileo Project Timeline of Galileo's life. << url: http://galileo.rice.edu/chron/galileo.html >> Harriot's July 26, 1609 drawing can also be viewed at the Galileo Project website. << url: http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/harriot_moon.html >> Chapman also reviews the ambiguous evidence supporting the existance of the English Diggs reflector telescope. Chapman conludes the Diggs scope probably did not exist. Clear Skies - Kurt Chapman, A. Dec. 2008. Thomas Harriot: the first telescopic astronomer. J. Br. Astron. Assoc. 118(6):315-325. P.S. - The J. Br. Astron. Assoc. article is a version of lecture given by Chapman in Dec. 2007. This may be old news and not new news to some. This (Dec. 2008) was the first time I ran across this reference. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com