Why did Riccioli put Argus in his Frontispiece? Why has Argus got a telescope? On studying the Odyssey with a reading group, I think this has uncovered an additional hidden symbolism I had previously missed. ...

The knowledge you already have can sometimes hold you back. The assumptions you choose to challenge makes the difference between a wild goose chase and groundbreaking discoveries. A great example is in Galileo's 1604 notes on the supernova. ...

My wife and I spent a long time trying to figure out what this strange kind of bird with a crazy hairstyle was. Then it hopped down a branch and it turned out to be a crow with branches in its mouth.

There are 33 craters on the moon named after Jesuit priests, and more named after Catholic priests in general. Photo taken with LadleLens 3000

Galileo Galilei was born 15 February 1568, it's more than 15 years since my infamous deflation of his bloated reputation #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/e...

******ALERT******* FUN SPOILING POST 1. Heliocentrism wasn't "Godless". Rather, the problem found with heliocentrism in 1616 was that Galileo had been reinterpreting scripture based on unproved claims. The Augustinian tradition allowed reinterpretation with proven science, which this was not. ...

I trained a speech-to-text model this week that shows signs of dyslexia. I guess the cause is a slight bias towards a lower Character Error Rate (LER) over a lower Word Error Rate (WER).

Vibe coded a tool for helping me explain astronomical concepts today sphaera-armillaris.vercel.app The real trick is to know how to break the process down into chunks small enough to be manageable for an LLM.

Vibe coded a tool for helping me explain astronomical concepts today sphaera-armillaris.vercel.app The real trick is to know how to break the process down into chunks small enough to be manageable for an LLM.

Beer brewing, master astronomer from Danzig, Johannes Hevelius was born 28 January 1611 #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/t...

Another Gnostalgia episode, discussing the Stars, cosmology, and our resulting worldviews. youtu.be/VG5b6b-lTfM?...

I know no-one wants to think about next term right now, but please remind students to book their places on the Latin palaeography online short courses at beginner or intermediate level taking place in February 👇 #MedievalSky 📖🧑‍💻👩‍💻👨🏽‍💻👩🏻‍💻🧑🏿‍💻🧑‍💻 📚 ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Do I have any astronomy/history women followers who would be interested in volunteering their voice for two minor lines as the Egyptian goddess Sopdet in an animation?

"It is no exaggeration to say that astronomy has existed as an exact science for more than five millenia. Throughout all of that time it has touched on matters of deep human concern." - John North, Cosmos

Who actually dropped balls from towers? Who dropped them best?

Can anyone recommend me a good, accurate, scholarly, book on the history of telephones?

Can anyone recommend me a good, accurate, scholarly, book on the history of telephones?

No Galileo did not prove heliocentrism. He didn't even claim he had proved it. The 1st empirical evidence of Earth's motion was Bradley aberration, published 1728. The myth that Galileo had proved it was started by Voltaire in 1734 in Letter 14 of Philosophical Letters. bsky.app/profile/mich...

#histsci 📜

I had a great time talking with Brian Scarffe and Sebastian Morello about astronomy, astrology, Shakespeare, Freud and your mother, and other stuff at the Gnostalgia Podcast. youtu.be/qK68-oiGAW0

Spundle Ermine, from caterpillar to moth. Super easy to keep, if you have infinite access to spindle trees.

I would urge everyone to write to their MPs to vote against Kim Leadbeater's Assisted Suicide bill. The vote will occur tomorrow. ...

I had a great time talking with Brian Scarffe and Sebastian Morello about astronomy, astrology, Shakespeare, Freud and your mother, and other stuff at the Gnostalgia Podcast. youtu.be/qK68-oiGAW0

🧵0/5 Johannes Kepler had the best arguments for Heliocentrism in his time, and continued to be the strongest advocate pretty much until Newton. This is despite predating Galileo. Here is a thread explaining Kepler's arguments as presented in Astronomia Nova (1609):

The full story of the Mysterium Cosmographicum thonyc.wordpress.com/2024/12/27/c...

Kepler, the famous astronomer wrote the novel "Somnium (the Dream)". Unfortunately I did not read it yet, but I heard he described his mother as a witch, which was problematic because his mother was convicted of being witch later. somniumproject.wordpress.com/somnium/

🧵0/5 Johannes Kepler had the best arguments for Heliocentrism in his time, and continued to be the strongest advocate pretty much until Newton. This is despite predating Galileo. Here is a thread explaining Kepler's arguments as presented in Astronomia Nova (1609):

The first substantiated proposal of an exoplanet I'm aware of was in 1783. The star Algol was observed to be of variable brightness by the deaf astronomer John Goodricke. His collaborator, Edward Pigott, proposed that it must be a planet that orbits the star and frequently occults it. ...

"But only half of his body is seen in the image - you will say - not sufficient for such a hero. Clearly he carried the Earth into the Aether, but the whole Earth cannot hold the whole of him" -Tycho Brahe, Epistles p.240

Spindle Ermine Moth caterpillars... the British equivalent of the silk worm. These guys have been covering whole trees nearby with webbing. Spindle Ermines usually will just eat spindle tree leaves, but my ones seem to be very happily munching away on some willow.

The first substantiated proposal of an exoplanet I'm aware of was in 1783. The star Algol was observed to be of variable brightness by the deaf astronomer John Goodricke. His collaborator, Edward Pigott, proposed that it must be a planet that orbits the star and frequently occults it. ...

VE day is marked with bitterness for many Poles. Not only because Poles were not included in the celebration,having bled defending England,or because they were the first to crack Enigma,provided most European intelligence through the war,& were involved in resistance groups across the continent. ..

My parents kindly sent me some photos of the Meridian Line from Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Rome. It was constructed in 1702 by the astronomer Monsignor Francesco Bianchini. It was commissioned by Pope Clement XI for what would now be ~€3m. ...

Astronomer, mathematician, Jesuit missionary to China, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, was born 1 May 1591. #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2021/08/04/t...

Benedetto Castelli (1578–1643) student & close supporter of Galileo, teacher of Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598–1647), Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608–1679) & Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647) #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/04/30/f...

My parents kindly sent me some photos of the Meridian Line from Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, Rome. It was constructed in 1702 by the astronomer Monsignor Francesco Bianchini. It was commissioned by Pope Clement XI for what would now be ~€3m. ...

I'm delighted to share a recording of my Honourary Michael Hoskyn lecture delivered for the Society for the History of Astronomy on 26th April 2025: youtu.be/54yd0pV4xac?...

I'm delighted to share a recording of my Honourary Michael Hoskyn lecture delivered for the Society for the History of Astronomy on 26th April 2025: youtu.be/54yd0pV4xac?...

I'm excited to share that I will be a keynote speaker at the April Spring Conference of the *Society of History of Astronomy*! I would be most excited to meet any or all of you there. 🔭📜🏛️

When you're trying to verify a celebrated author's claim that one astronomer measured another's value of tropical year more accurately... but you're not convinced they knew that tropical year varies substantially. #EveryDayProblems

R + I + P

"If the public did not believe in astrology, books on astronomy would not sell" -Giovanni Battista Riccioli

"If the public did not believe in astrology, books on astronomy would not sell" -Giovanni Battista Riccioli

A brief story of what capturing the 2025 partial eclipse was like for me... ...as a daddy.

I love this thing. Everything about it is uplifting, from the lovely glossy feel to the articles that show what can be... unburdened by what has been. Featuring yours truly, of course.

I love this thing. Everything about it is uplifting, from the lovely glossy feel to the articles that show what can be... unburdened by what has been. Featuring yours truly, of course.

The Intriguingly named Father _MAX __HELL_ (or Hell Miksa/Maximilian Höll) ...was of course a Jesuit Astronomer, who made a very difficult expedition to Vardö, on the Arctic coast of Lapland, in order to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus. ...

Sunspot 4046 from Saturday 29th March 2025 Skywatcher 300P Dobsonian Canon EOS 1200D

A brief story of what capturing the 2025 partial eclipse was like for me... ...as a daddy.

Who is catching the partial solar eclipse?