Most of us have looked up at the stars in wonder. We’ve created glow-in-the-dark galaxies with plastic stars on our bedroom ceilings and traced the constellations with our fingertips. We know that Galileo Galilei was more than just a scientist with a catchy, alliterative name. He was the “father of science,” perhaps, the “father of modern physics,” and also the “father of modern observational astronomy.”
2009, celebrated as the International Year of Astronomy, pays tribute to Galileo’s discoveries, his astronomical observations, and, of course, his telescope. The UW-Madison Astronomy Department brings the party to Wisconsin with a series of events entitled “Galileo under Wisconsin Stars (GuWS). “