I just returned to Canada yesterday after visiting Italy. While I was in Firenze I visited the Galileo Exibition that is on there for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The exhibition was touted as 'Images of the Universe From Antiquity to the Telescope.' Happy 400th birthday to the telescope!

"The exhibition is a journey through space and time, exploring the science of the heavens and the birth of astronomy from the astonishing knowledge of the heavenly bodies that the peoples of Mesopotamia and the Nile delta had built up to the achievements of the classical Greek and Roman civilizations and of the Islamic, medieval Christian and Renaissance cultures. Finally, it takes us to the head of the astronomical revolution heralded by Nicolaus Copernicus, confirmed by Galileo and his telescope, and completed by such extraordinary figures as Johannes Kepler, René Descartes and Isaac Newton." from www.imss.fi.it/news/emost...iverso.html

Featured were ancient gold and bronze astrolabes and the complex mechanical models commissioned by Ptolemy, Aristotle, and Copernicus to depict the theories of the motion of the sun and planets, and Galileo's written apopogy to the Church for refuting their view by agreeing with the Copernican view of a sun centered solar system. Galileo's telescopes were there as were telescopes made by his contempories. Also there for viewing were Galileo's controvercial drawings of the Moon, Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn. An added bonus was there inside of a glass bell jar - Galileo's index finger!

If you find yourself in Florence this summer I recommend you make the time to visit the man (his finger anyway) that invented modern astronomy, or for that matter, modern science!