The Compass: Stargazing

In this five part series, science writer and author Dava Sobel explores our fascination with the heavens, from the early revelations of Copernicus to the latest technologies around the world, as we peer ever further into the Cosmos. The series connects early science, with faith and the latest astronomical research around the world.

In programme one, Dava Sobel uncovers the brilliance of her hero, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus who some 500 years ago was secretly working on a theory that would reveal the true model of the universe, putting the Sun rather than the Earth at its hub. He observed with his naked eyes and using only rudimentary tools.

In the Cathedral town of Frombork on the Baltic Sea in Northern Poland, he served as a canon his entire career and kept his astronomical findings like a terrible secret, fearful of being denounced by the Catholic Church. He only published his life’s work, On The Revolutions Of The Heavenly Spheres - dedicated to the Pope - on his deathbed, but it would be the touchstone for great early scientists including Galileo, Kepler and Newton.

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