Galileo's Dialogo

Oesterle Library and the mathematics department invite you to witness the nationwide unveiling of two stunning, large-scale, multi-wavelength images showing the core of the Milky Way Galaxy as viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra Space Telescope and the Spitzer X-Ray Observatory.

The event will take place from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the College’s Oesterle Library.

Visitors will also be able to see a first edition copy of Galileo’s “Dialogo,” the Italian astronomer and philosopher’s greatest work.  Published in Florence in 1632, the volume is the most rare and valuable item in North Central College’s Special Collection.

North Central College is one of only 11 cultural and scientific sites in Illinois and 152 nationwide authorized by NASA to unveil the images as part of the International Year of Astronomy celebration.

Oesterle Library, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
At the event:

• Richard Wilders, professor of mathematics, will discuss the Aristotelian and Copernican views of the universe, which debated whether the sun orbited the Earth or the Earth orbited the sun.
• Michael de Brauw, assistant professor of classics, will discuss North Central’s copy of “Dialogo.”
• John Zenchek, professor of biology, will demonstrate a Galileoscope—a modern telescope that allows users to see the sky in the same way Galileo would have with his telescope.
• William Higgins, an engineering physicist who works on radiation safety at Fermilab and a representative of NASA’s Solar System Ambassadors Program, will unveil the images and describe them.

For more information about Galileo, the Milky Way Galaxy or the International Year of Astronomy, visit the library’s subject guide.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 1:55 am and is filed under events, science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.