Italian astronomer and physicist. Galileo discovered the importance of acceleration, and established the law of parabolic motion. He invented the refracting telescope and used it to make astronomical observations. He saw the mountains on the moon and observed that the Milky Way was made up of stars. He was condemned by the Inquisition for his belief in the Copernican system of planetary movement which states that the planets, including the Earth, move around the sun, rather than believing the Earth to be the fixed centre of the universe. In the statue Galileo holds two lenses, one in each hand. Caen stone statue by Alexander Munro.

- Oxford University Museum of Natural History

It was beautiful and foggy this morning, so I had to take a couple of shots on the way into work. I love how this one came out looking so cinematic.

Something different today, a public announcement if you will.

For some bizarre reason my subscriber count has shot up in the past few weeks, so as a public service to those of you in the Oxfordshire area, there's a little flickr meet up taking place tonight at the Three Goats Heads in Oxford.

We have them semi-regularly, usually every other month. They're social events, where topics of conversation range wide and free (I suspect Adrian and myself will mainly be discussing episode 20 of Heroes tonight) and you get the chance to share a few beers with fellow flickrites.

There's a thread with more details on the Oxford flickr group, and if you're an Upcoming user you can register your interest on the event page.

Luminox