Nitesh Sehwani, SE EXTC
We all must have always seen the beautiful Evening/Morning star some or the other
time in our life...well it is surely beauty to be admired. From Earth (which is about 40
million kilometres away from Venus at it is nearest), it appears as a faint star-like
object. But is it actually so??
Unlike what we can interpret from mere naked eye observation, Venus, on parallel
lines with our Moon has it's very own phases. The phases of the moon were first
analysed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy; although falsely. In those days, it was
widely believed that the Earth was at the centre of the solar system and that the other
extraterrestrial objects including the sun revolved around it.
This misnomer was to be accepted for the next 2600 years to come until the great
Polish astronomer Copernicus came forward with his 'heliocentric' [Greek- Helios:
Sun] system. Based on spectacular astronomical observations carried out by his
predecessor Kepler and his own interpretation of movement of celestial objects in the
night sky, he boldly postulated that it was actually the Sun which was at the centre of
the solar system and not the Earth. This theory sent shock waves through to the
prevalent Church in those days and he was tried for blasemy.
Galileo’s observation log. Credit: Instituto di Linguistica Computazionale
About 17 years later, the great physicist Galileo came out in open support of the
Copernican model. He argued that the base of his argument lay in his close detailed
observations of Venus, through his reflecting microscope.
What he observed with the help of a mere primary telescope, about 400 years ago is
shown in the picture above.