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DTSTAMP:20260615T175514Z
DESCRIPTION:Sara J. Schechner will be coming to speak in The Paul and\nIren
 e Hollister Seminar on Glass\, Wednesday\, February 10\, 2010 on: “What\nG
 alileo Saw and How: Glass and its Challenges for 17th Century Telescope\nM
 akers.”\n\nDr. Schechner is currently the David P. Wheatland Curator of\nt
 he Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University\,
  a\nposition she has held since 2000. She received her B.A. and M.A in His
 tory and\nScience from Harvard University\, her M.Phil. in History and Phi
 losophy of\nScience from Cambridge University and her Ph.D. in the History
  of Science from\nHarvard University.Dr. Schechner has curated many exhibi
 tions\, the most recent\nbeing a permanent exhibit that began in 2007 titl
 ed\, The Rediscovery of\nthe Mind: Harvard and the Cognitive Revolution\, 
 at Harvard University. She has\nreceived numerous awards and honors includ
 ing the Joseph H. Hazen Education\nPrize from the History of Science Socie
 ty in 2008 and First Place in the\nInternational Design Awards in 2007 for
  her exhibit titled\, Time\, Life\,\n& Matter.Dr. Schechner is the author 
 of many articles\, essays and\nbooks including Comets\, Popular Culture\, 
 and the Birth of Modern Cosmology (Princeton\nUniversity Press\, 1997) and
  she is currently working on Sundials and Time\nFinding Instruments\, vols
 . 3 and 4 of Historic Scientific Instruments of\nthe Adler Planetarium & A
 stronomy Museum\, with Bruce Chandler\, to be\npublished in 2010 or 2011.T
 he invention of the telescope announced in The Hague in\nSeptember 1608 ca
 used excitement throughout Europe. By April 1609\, low-power\n(3x) spyglas
 ses were for sale in Paris\, and by June or July\, Galileo had made\nhis f
 irst three-power instrument. In August\, he offered the Venetian Senate an
 \neight-power telescope\, and by October or November\, Galileo completed a
 \ntwenty-power instrument. It was at this time that he turned the telescop
 e\nskyward. His discoveries were stunning! His findings\, published in has
 te in the\nStarry Messenger in March 1610\, opened up the European skies t
 o telescopic\nobservations and whole new areas of astronomical research. W
 hy were some\nhesitant to accept Galileo’s discoveries or unable to replic
 ate what he saw?\nWhy did telescope magnification seem to stall at about t
 hirty-power? The\nanswers can be found through a better understanding of m
 aterial culture.\nAcceptance of the telescope as a tool of scientific disc
 overy and improvements\nto the instrument were limited by the quality of t
 he glass\; the methods of\nshaping\, grinding\, and polishing lenses\; the
  difficulties in mounting the\nlenses and tubes\; the field of view throug
 h the instrument\; and optical\naberrations caused by the shape of the gla
 ss. When we consider the challenges\npresented by glass instruments\, Gali
 leo’s achievements 400 years ago are even\nmore remarkable. Hands-on activ
 ities will be included.Please join us in the Lecture Hall at 38 West 86th 
 Street\,\nbetween Columbus Ave and Central Park West at 5:45pm for a light
  reception\nbefore the talk.The Paul and Irene Hollister Lectures on Glass
  are made\npossible through a generous endowment from Irene Hollister in m
 emory of her\nlate husband Paul.
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20100325T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20100325T200000
SUMMARY:Bard Graduate Center: What Galileo Saw and How:
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