The life and discoveries made by the ground breaking Italian scientist Galileo was the subject of the presentation given by society Chairman Paul Neaves. Approximately twenty members of the society braved the winter weather to enjoy the works of the man who was an astronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher and inventor. Paul explained the Geocentric model of the universe which was embraced by earlier astronomers, had the Earth at the center of the universe with other objects moving around it.
Work by Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler helped to supercede this theory with the more accurate heliocentric model. Such a view of the universe differed strongly with the beliefs of the Catholic Church at the time and Galileo was forced to withdraw many of his ideas and even spent the final years of his life under house arrest. The presentation also covered Galileo’s use of the newly invented telescope to observe the moons around Jupiter, Sun spots, and the surface of the Moon.
