Michelangelo's "The Night," carved for the Medici brothers' tomb, was a sleeping woman, but her posture looked terribly uncomfortable, as though she were tossing and turning.
An owl crouched beneath the cushion she sat upon, beside a mask with a look of shock that brought to mind nightmares that lasted through the night. In any case, she was not "falling asleep charmingly," as the poet's hymn had described.
As a tomb sculpture, she made the owner of the tomb seem unable to rest in peace.
Michelangelo had also written a poem:
Sleep is sweet, and becoming stone is sweeter,
So long as shame and sin remain in the world.
To see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing is my greatest joy;
Do not wake me. Speak softly.
"The Night" had lasted a long time in Europe. The other sculpture, "The Dawn," looked like an Ariadne who had just awakened, struggling unwillingly to rise from a sweet dream.
After Galileo, Newton also invented a telescope. But unlike Galileo's refracting telescope, Newton made a reflecting telescope. Compared to a refracting telescope, a reflecting telescope could magnify larger images.
However, the images produced by reflecting telescopes were not as bright as those of refracting telescopes. Moreover, the highly reflective metal mirrors required for metal telescopes were not easy to obtain, and they needed frequent polishing; otherwise, the mirrors would gradually lose their luster. Refracting telescopes, on the other hand, could be used indefinitely as long as the dust was cleared away occasionally.
The telescopes used by Hogwarts students were sufficient for Astronomy lessons. Astronomy enthusiasts, however, would go to Muggle shops to buy expensive telescopes. In the field of exploring the vast starry sky, Muggles had already surpassed wizards.
Severus had a "patent." Of course, applying for patents was practically a "joke" to alchemists.