Happy Birthday, Telescope!

400 years ago today, an invention was made that would change the world forever. Invented on August 25^th, 1609, by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the telescope would forever revolutionize the world of science!

Originally born as a spyglass, the first "telescopes" were quite simple. They typically only had magnifications of 3x or so. Galileo's first telescope was also quite simple, having a magnification of only 8x. He later refined the design of this telescope to have a magnification of 20x. Galileo used these telescopes to make such important observations as the Moon's surface, the Moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and Sunspots. Galileo even noted "appendages" on Saturn, which turned out to be the giant planet's famed ring system.

So celebrate this birthday by getting your telescope out and observing Jupiter or the Moon! Today's telescope technology is much more advanced than in Galileo's time, but remember where it came from, it's simple beginnings as homemade spyglasses!

Happy 400^th Birthday, Telescope!!

Astronomy Calendar, August 2009

The following is a list of celestial events occurring in August 2009.

• August 5 - Penumbral lunar eclispe centered at 00:39 UTC.


• August 6 - Jupiter is 3 degrees south of the Moon.


• August 12 - The Perseid meteor shower peaks at 18:00 UTC. The Perseids are expected to produce up to 100 meteors per hour this year. This is definitely a meteor shower you won't want to miss!


• August 14 - Jupiter is at opposition at 18:00 UTC. This is the best time to view Jupiter, as it is the closest Earth will approach the planet. Thus, Jupiter will appear its largest and brightest that it will all year.


• August 17 - Neptune is at opposition at 21:00 UTC. If you're going to look for Neptune, this is definitely the time to do so.


• August 19 - Double Galilean shadow transit occurs at 23:47 UTC.


• August 24 - Mercury is at its greatest eastern elongation at 16:00 UTC. This is the time at which the planet will appear furthest from the Sun from our point of view. This is one of the best times to observe Mercury; just be careful that the Sun is not in the telescope's field of view.


• August 27 - Double Galilean shadow transit begins at 02:42 UTC.

Clear skies!