The Padua Professor Who Demonstrated an Improved Telescope to the Venetian Senate on a Bell Tower in August 1609 and Got His Salary Doubled
Galileo Galilei demonstrated his improved 8x telescope to the Venetian Senate from the bell tower of San Marco on 21 August 1609. The senators looked at distant ships approaching the lagoon, decided that the strategic value was substantial, and doubled Galileo's University of Padua salary to 1,000 florins per year. He was a month away from turning the same instrument on the night sky.
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