thomas harriot's moon drawings

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The Galileo Project | Science | Thomas Harriot | Moon Drawings

The Galileo Project > Science > Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot's Moon Drawings

In 1609 and 1610, Thomas Harriot made a number of drawings of his

telescopic observations of the Moon. In addition he also drew "Moon

Maps" of what he believed the surface geography of the Moon to be.

Moon Observations

First row (left to right):

26 July 1609

17 July 1610

20 July 1610

17 August 1610

Second Row (left to right):

18 August 1610

20 August 1610

12 September 1610

15 September 1610

Moon Maps

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The Galileo Project | Science | Thomas Harriot | Moon Drawings

Moon map

Moon map with labels

Note: All dates for Harriot's observations are on the Julian calendar. Add ten days to convert them to the Gregorian calendar.

Images: Copyright, Lord Egremont. Reproduced with permission.

1995 Al Van Helden

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The Galileo Project | Science | Thomas Harriot

The Galileo Project > Science > Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot (1560-1621)

Nothing is known of Harriot's life up to the time when, at age

seventeen, he matriculated at the University of Oxford. The record

states that he was from the county of Oxford and that his father was a

commoner. Harriot studied at St. Mary's Hall, took his degree in 1580,

and went to London. Here he was employed by Sir Walter Ralegh andin 1585 went with the expedition to Virginia organized by Ralegh as

cartographer and one versed in the theory of navigation--in our terms, as

staff scientist. Harriot returned in 1586 and wrote an account of Virginia

and its natives, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of

Virginia , published in 1588. In the meantime, Harriot had joined

Ralegh in Ireland, which the English were colonizing at that time.

Ralegh granted Harriot a former abbey, where Harriot lived for a few

years. Back in London, Harriot came into contact with William Percy,

9th Earl of Northumberland, and in 1598 he left Ralegh and entered the

service of Northumberland, who gave him a pension and living quarters

(and later a separate house) at Syon House, just west of London. In

1605 Harriot was briefly imprisoned along with Northumberland as a

result of the Gunpowder Plot. Harriot was quickly released but the earl

remained in the Tower of London until 1622. Harriot lived at Syon for

the rest of his life. In 1613 he developed an cancerous ulcer (on his

nostril), which was the eventual cause of his death.

Harriot's moon drawing of 26 July 1609 Julian (5

August 1609 Gregorian).

Except for A Brief and True

Report , Harriot published nobooks. At his death he left a large

number of manuscripts on various

scientific subjects, and over the

past three centuries these have

slowly come into the mainstream

of historical research. Harriot

studied optics (about which he

corresponded with Johannes Kepler )

and had discovered what is now

known as Snell's Law of refraction

before Snell did, he made important contributions to algebra, and, from

1609 to 1613, he made numerous telescopic observations. His

telescopic drawing of the Moon of early August 1609 is the first on

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The Galileo Project | Science | Thomas Harriot

record and preceded Galileo's study of the Moon by several months.

Several of Harriot's Moon Drawings are available.

Harriot's observation of sunspots of December 1610 is also the first on

record. But although Harriot shared his observations with a group of

correspondents in England, he did not publish them. The executors of

his estate published a small portion of his mathematical work under the

title Artis Analyticae Praxis (1627).

Harriot's sunspot drawing of

December 1610.

Sources: Harriot's life is well told in John W. Shirley, Thomas Harriot: A Biography

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983). Shirley has also published A Source Book for the

Study of Thomas Harriot (New York: Arno Press, 1981), and Thomas Harriot:

Renaissance Scientist (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974) which contain many useful

articles on Harriot's life and scientific studies. See also J. A. Lohne, "Harriot, Thomas,"

Dictionary of Scientific Biography, VI:124-129.

Image: Moon and Sunspot drawings: copyright, Lord Egremont. Reproduced with

permission.

1995 Al Van Helden

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thomas harriot's moon drawings

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