Starry Messenger and Lucretius

With the use of his "spyglass", Galileo was able to observe things that no other man before him had saw. He was able to see the surface of the moon, fixed stars, and also saw four new planets that revolve around Jupiter. These are so important because they were new to everyone and challenged age old beliefs. He saw the moon's surface and discovered that it was rough, not smooth like originally thought. Galileo believes that the most important thing he discovered was the four planets revolving around Jupiter. By closely observing them, Galileo was able to conclude that they were in orbit around Jupiter, which in turn was in orbit around the Sun. Galileo realized the importance of his discoveries, as shown by him always toting the fact that they were never seen before. He also knew that his new "spyglass" was very important because he went into great detail about it. Obviously, it was essential for all of his findings.

Personally, I have never observed what Galileo saw the way that he saw it. Obviously, the images and textbooks I have seen the moon's surface or other planets, but never for myself. Viewing them for myself would be truly amazing, and would definitely enhance the observations. However, I don't think it would change my perspective, but only give me a deeper understanding.

Lucretius's work dealt a lot about perception and the senses. He talks about how things may not be truly how they appear, like optical illusions. This definitely put a stranglehold over new discoveries. New ideas and discoveries were opposed and disliked because why were people to believe them to be true. Therefore, people might have not even looked through the telescope, because there was no way to be sure that they were viewing reality. This mindset was not beneficial to Galileo and other advancements. The people hold some fault for this, but I can not blame them fully. Surely the views come from the era they lived in and other factors such as leaders and religion.

Here is a link to a song. Personally, one of my favorites:
http://www.garageband.com/mp3player?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSnZleya24
Here is a link to the lyrics if you want to read them. Don't try and listen to the song from this site
http://www.songsforteaching.com/jptaylor/galileo.htm