Long, long ago in 1564, on February 15, a boy was born with stars in his eyes. As he grew, he seemed like any other playful boy, but stars were always on his mind. Every night he would lie on his back, looking out the window at the heavens. He searched for his favorite constellations--Pegasus, the Winged Horse, and Andromeda. And every night he would tell himself the old Greek stories that went along with the star clusters: the winged horse, Pegasus, Orion's belt, Cygnus the Swan.

His friends teased him about his beliefs, but no one could stop him. And again that night he stared up at the constellations and saw the Big Dipper and the Small Dipper and the winged horse Pegasus. He would stare up at them for hours and hours and add the stars together.

But as he grew, so did his thoughts until he was doing experiments in front of an audience. And he did an experiment on the leaning tower of Pisa. Galileo dropped two things of different weight and he discovered that they hit the ground at the same time.

In December of 1609 Galileo had created a telescope of twenty times magnification with which he discovered mountains and craters on the moon, and the four largest satellites of Jupiter. But he was going against the church, because they didn't believe what he telling them was true.

He was so fascinated by his findings that he showed people at the dinner table with an orange and a grape, and dropped them off the table, and they both hit the ground at the same time.

Then a few years later he heard about a spyglass that had been invented in Holland. Also in that year of 1609, he invented a telescope about as powerful as a modern field glass. In 1611, he decided to visit Rome to display the telescope to the Papal court, but no longer did he think of the dreams of the heavens and the constellations. But most of all, he never stared up at the stars with his own eyes. He would use his telescope or his inventions.

But beware. Galileo is going to be in danger from the Roman Catholic Church.

But Galileo didn't know of the danger ahead of him and so he kept discovering new things against the church and Aristotle.

Aristotle thought that the sun revolved around the Earth because when you look out to the sun, it looks like the sun is moving around us because it moves from one side of the Earth to the other, but it is the other way around.

He also invented the compass to help guide you home. All these inventions! What happened to the dreams of the heavens? He never wondered about the heavens or if the stars are God's eyes or just balls of steaming gas. He was too old to remember all the dreams, but he was finding things out that no one else had ever discovered. He discovered that the Milky Way was made up of stars. He followed the Copernican books and went against the Church.

Galileo got more and more famous and people were making parades and performances and the church got madder and madder until they couldn't stand it. Well, Galileo was having the best time with the parades and jugglers.

More and more people gathered up with the priests and Bible and the court to say "Stop believing what you believe. THE EARTH STAYS IN THE MIDDLE!"

But no one could stop him from his beliefs.

Galileo was getting into more and more trouble. He now knew his past, but insisted on keeping going on his astronomy and science. But the church would not give up. They were planning a revenge on Galileo to stop him from believing what he believed in. The church believed that the earth stays in the middle and all of the planets revolve around the earth but that is not true. That is why the church wanted revenge on Galileo.

As a young boy, he dreamed of the heavens and constellations but now when he was older he got into troubles that could cost him his life. Galileo couldn't stop himself though he knew what horror the torture was. He didn't have the powers to remember being a boy so he just kept going with his life. Because they all believed in the church, there was no one to help him. Only the stars and the heavens and over all God was helping. Now we know one thing Galileo is in trouble.

It was a rainy day when Galileo was summoned to Rome by the papal court to be stopped in believing in his discovery. The church believed that the earth stays in the middle and he had to stop talking about his ideas. Galileo had to sign a paper saying he believed that the sun moved and the earth stood still. Galileo signed that paper and the stars went out of his eyes. But some people say he whispered under his breath, the sun stands still and the earth moves. Galileo was put under house arrest for the rest of his life. The church did not forgive him until 1992.