Rediscovering old pleasures during period of lockdown

LOCKDOWN HAS been a difficult time for everyone.

The philosophy that I adopted was to feel part of a mission that had the best interests of the whole country as its aim.

Having your freedom curtailed is like being under house arrest.

That made me think of the great scientist Galileo, whose work effectively confirmed the theory of Copernicus that the sun was at the centre of the solar system, rather than the Earth.

He published his findings in 1610, but immediately drew the wrath of the Roman Inquisition.

In 1632 he was forced by the

Roman Inquisition to recant and was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642.

I have always been fascinated by this great man and visited the Museum of the History of Science in Florence a few years ago to see his first telescope and to research his life for a book I was writing at the time.

For fun during lockdown I dusted down my own telescope and my old microscope and started studying the sky and the microscopic world that exists in my rain barrel and standing water wherever I could find it.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian astronomer, philosopher, mathematician and physicist, one of the key figures in the scientific revolution.

He developed the compass and he also advanced many of the theories of physics. He was one of the first astronomers to use a telescope, which was sophisticated enough for him to observe and describe the phases of Venus, map the moon and coin the term ‘crater.’

In addition, he described sunspot activity in the sun and discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter.

Although there had been earlier magnifying glasses in the Netherlands, it was not until Galileo invented a compound microscope with a convex and a concave lens in 1609 that it became of any real value.

Galileo called his instrument ‘the occhiolino,’ or the ‘little eye.’

My observations of the moon, the planets and the odd meteor shower have not pushed back any frontiers.

Nor have I discovered any new organisms under my microscope, but I have had fun and rekindled old interests.

And my lockdown has certainly not been a house arrest like that of Galileo. I would recommend trying different things if you are finding lockdown boring.