Early in January 1610 he did what now seems most obvious—he turned his telescope toward the skies. Today this would require neither courage nor imagination, but in Galileo’s day it was quite otherwise. Who would dare use a toy to penetrate the majesty of the celestial spheres? To spy out the shape of God’s Heaven was superfluous, presumptuous, and might prove blasphemous. Galileo was no better than a theological Peeping Tom.
