nass news 2021 mar museo galileo

Want to travel? Want to see sundials? Well, you can do both by taking a virtual tour of the Galileo Museum (Museo Galileo) in Florence, Italy. Beside showing you detailed sundials, astrolabes, and quadrants in their collection, they host a series of short 2 minute videos on sundials and many other topics.

This is a fun virtual site to explore: https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/  Here you can read about the biography of Galileo or many other famous scientists or you may want to browse many of 1000 astronomical instruments in their collection, or watch a video on Galileo's astronomy or see how the the heavens can be seen in the armillary sphere sundial, or consider the history of the lightning rod with a demostration of gunpowder blowing apart a small wooden house (called a "Thunder House") that doesn't have one.

There are many short videos about sundials and astrolabes.  And of course there is the Monumental Sundial at the entrance to Museo Galileo.  Click here to watch a short animation of how this gnomonic sundial works. The Museum has many of these instructional videos.  Be sure to visit their video catalogue: https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/index/VideoIndexByThematicArea.html