Astronomers

Astronomers look at the sky to learn more about it. They look at stars, comets and planets. They use telescopes to make things look nearer and bigger. Telescopes can be very big or small. Some people have a small telescope at home. Some of the very big telescopes are in observatories. Here is one.

The telescope goes through a hole in the roof. People must climb up

stairs to see through the telescope because it is so big.

Galileo was a clever astronomer in Italy He lived from 1564 - 1642. At this time most people did not know about science, but Galileo liked science. He made a small telescope in 1609. This is a picture of Galileo’s telescope. Galileo looked at the sky through the telescope and saw craters on the moon. He saw rings round the planet Saturn. He saw four moons round the planet Jupiter. (See the picture of the planets on pages 22 and 23. ) He said,

‘The Earth goes round the Sun. All the planets go round the Sun.’ People said, ‘That’s a story!’

But Galileo was right!