Galileo's Observations of Neptune
Abstract
The discoverer of what will forever be the most remote prediscovery celestial observation of them all tells the exciting story of how it happened. Triggered by Steve Albers' 1979 Sky&Telescope suggestion that Galileo's search for Jovian satellites might have accidentally stumbled upon Uranus or Neptune when Jupiter passed in front of them, Kowal investigated Galileo's notebooks for 1612-1613 (one of Albers' suggested hotspots), with the help of Hale Observatories' 87y-old astronomer-librarian Alexander Pogo. The search revealed a dot in the drawing for 1613/1/28 that did not match any star, thus it was indeed Neptune - nearly 78y before Flamsteed's 1st prediscovery observation of far-closer Uranus. The help of historian Stillman Drake is acknowledged.
- Publication:
-
DIO
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008DIO....15....3K
- Keywords:
-
- Neptune;
- Galileo;
- Steve Albers;
- Charles Kowal;
- Alexander Pogo;
- Stillman Drake;
- Dennis Rawlins;
- E.Myles Standish