The Face of the Moon

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Galileo to Apollo

Depictions of the Lunar Landscape between 1610 - 1978

When Galileo announced the existence of mountains, craters, and “seas” on the surface of the moon, his announcement came in the form of a book, the Sidereus Nuncius, or Starry Messenger. It included the first printed telescopic images of the moon. This exhibition explores how the face of the moon has been variously depicted in the years since, from Galileo to the Apollo Program.   Enter the exhibition >

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A note about the illustrations and terminology.

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ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

Galileo’s printed observations about the face of the moon in spring of 1610 forever changed our view of the universe. Since antiquity the moon had been considered a "heavenly" object, made of a perfect uniform substance, eternal, immune to change. Galileo saw the moon as a world, made of the same elements as our own planet. He literally brought the heavens down to earth.  More >

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"I applied myself to explorations of the heavens, and first I looked at the Moon…" Galileo - Sidereus   Nuncius,
Van Helden translation