Celebrating 400 Years of the Telescope

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Oct 8, 2009

In 1609, Galileo Galilei, an Italian scientist, performed the first observation of the "stars" using a telescope. The Moon was covered with craters, the Milky Way was made of numerous stars, satellites circulated Jupiter, Venus waxed and waned.
 
In celebration of using the telescope for 400years, the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and the Institute for Astronomy present an afternoon Astronomy Lecture Series in Hamilton Library, Room 301 during the Fall semester. All lectures begin at 3:30 pm.
 
Dr. Gareth Wynn-Williams will speak on and ancient Greek enigma, The Antikythera Mechanism on Wednesday, October 14th. Recent X-ray analysis of the encrusted piece of bronze from a 2000-year-old Greek shipwreck shows it to be an astronomical computing device of astonishing complexity but what did it do and what purpose did it serve?
 
On Wednesday October, 28th Dr. Alan T. Tokunaga, the IRTF Division Chief and IfA Associate Director of Instrumentation will present a lecture entitled, Telescopes: Big and Small, highlighting the research done with the 3.0-meter (9.8 ft) NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), a telescope on Mauna Kea dedicated for planetary science and mission support, and operated for NASA by the University of Hawaiʻi
 
Paul H. Coleman will speak on strained relationships between modern astronomers and indigenous peoples with their sacred mountains in the lecture, Sacred Mountains and Astronomy, on Wednesday, November 18th.
 
The final lecture on Thursday, December 3rd entitled, Hubble Space Telescope: Past, Present & Future byLisa Kewley, will focus on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), its on our knowledge of the Universe from planets in our solar system to nearby stars, and to extremely distant galaxies.
 
For more information, check out the UH Mānoa Library Upcoming Events page at: