This year is the 400th Anniversary of the Telescope

[Sticks]

Just herd on this programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/cosmicquest_mon), that the first patent for the telescope was registered on 25 September 1608

(Listen to the programme for details)

This means this will be the 400th Anniversary of the telescope :)

[hhEb09'1]

This means this will be the 400th Anniversary of the telescope :)And next year, The International Year of Astronomy (http://www.astronomy2009.org/content/view/344/46/), will be the 400th anniversary of its use in astronomy :)

[Sticks]

And next year, The International Year of Astronomy (http://www.astronomy2009.org/content/view/344/46/), will be the 400th anniversary of its use in astronomy :)

I got

Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL

From that link :confused:

[hhEb09'1]

Weird, so do I now. You and I must've slashdotted that puppy. :)

It looks like there are numerous mirror sites with country codes, in various stages of upkeep, but here is an IAU announcement (http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/release/iau0702/) about it that should be stable.

[Swift]

This is a photo (http://picasaweb.google.com/jwfoise/Italy2008/photo#5202091983774337778) I took during my recent trip to Italy, at a museum in Florence, of some of Galileo's telescopes.