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Did you know that… the astronomers of the Brera Astronomical Observatory built the meridian line inside the Duomo (cathedral) of Milan?

In Italy, until the second half of the 18th century, the beginning of the new day, which was divided in 24 hours, was related to the setting of the Sun. Due to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the length of the day from sunset to sunset changes a few to several minutes each day during the year: a total of about 3.5 h at the latitude of Milano.

Did you know that… William Herschel discovered binary star systems, systems of stars orbiting one around the other?

William Herschel was an excellent astronomer … but he was also very lucky in his career! He is famous for the discovery of the planet Uranus, on March 13, 1781. However, this very important discovery was entirely accidental, since he was actually trying to study something completely different: the spatial distribution of the stars in the Milky Way with measurements of their distances.

Did you know that… light can tell you the ins and outs of stars?

Light can tell you the ins and outs of stars
When light passes through a dispersive material, like a prism, a multicolored band appears; this “spectrum” forms because light is split up into its colors, each with its own wavelength. This is what causes the beautiful rainbows we see in the sky after the rain, the result of sunlight going through, technically being dispersed by the drops of water in the air.

Did you know that… even spiders had an important role in astronomy?

Even spiders had an important role in astronomy
By the end of the 18th century spider web strands were commonly employed for the reticles of astronomical instruments called filar micrometers. These instruments were used to determine positions, angular sizes and distances of the celestial objects observed with telescopes (the angular size of an object is its apparent size, as it appears from a given point of view, measured in fractions of a degree).