“Exactly 400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609..”

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Google has marked the date with a special logo. It’s the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s demonstration of his improved 8-powered version of the telescope to the Venetian Senate. And the improvements continue, as predicted by one of Those [Royal Society] Guys. The telescope was my nomination for greatest human innovation, and the Guardian’s Science blog has an interesting related post. Although the Galileo Project points out that Thomas Harriot was also using a telescope to observe the skies. Meanwhile, postponed due to the weather, tomorrow morning should see the Nasa shuttle Discovery head off again to the International Space Station on Space Shuttle Mission STS-128. Lift-off is scheduled for 6.10am [BST]. Usual coverage on Nasa TV, the launch blog, and Astro-twitter. And yes, still si muove. Adds Another delay, try again Friday.Btw, no history of the time, especially not one dwelling on the scientific [such as it was] advances of Galileo, should be without a reference to the Medici family.

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