I therefore waited for the next night

The Messenger

Piece honoring the Mercury MESSENGER mission created for my 7,000th tweet. The text is taken from the title page of a translated version of Galileo’s “Sidereal Messenger.” Background image was taken by MESSENGER on October 18, 2014. Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences: Redacted Poem

A page of Galileo’s “Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences” redacted into a poem. (I used Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio’s 1914 translation for this effort.) The frame is a star field in Cepheus captured by the Dawn mission. Image credit: NASA/JPL /MPS/DLR/IDA

Sidereal Messenger: Redacted Poem #2

From “The Sidereal Messenger,” the English translation of Galileo Galilei’s “Sidereus Nuncius,” published in 1610. The partial frame at top and bottom are Galileo’s observations of Jupiter and moons on January 22 and January 24, 1610.

Sidereal Messenger: Redacted Poem #1

From "The Sidereal Messenger," the English translation of Galileo Galilei's "Sidereus Nuncius," published in 1610.  The stars redacting part of the original text are from Galileo's own star drawings; I have sliced the original drawings and reassembled the pieces at random so the patterns are no longer discernible.