Overview

Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei made a number of discoveries when he pointed his telescope to the sky. The telescope has been an invaluable tool for exploring the distant and exciting universe.

Johannes Kepler published his "Astronomia nova" in the same year 1609, an epoch-making book about the Solar System. Kepler was first in correctly describing the motion of the planets on their orbits around the Sun.

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 has been called by the UNESCO in remembrance of the progress made by Kepler and Galilei and of the importance astronomy has had for mankind in general.