Interestingly, in his first drawing (made before seeing Galileo's drawings), there is no sense at all that the unevenness of the shadow across the moon is a sign that there are valleys and mountains on the moon. He looked at the same thing as Galileo, but possibly because he was a much less accomplished artist, didn't recognize what he was seeing as depth. I read about this in a book called The Invention of Science--absolutely fascinating.
Another commenter clarifies:
The authenticity of the water color drawings sheet is undisputed; what was shown to be a forgery – see http://skyweek.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/nuncius-mit-angeblic... – was an alleged proof copy of the Nuncius that also contained water colors.
http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/harriot_moon.html
Interestingly, in his first drawing (made before seeing Galileo's drawings), there is no sense at all that the unevenness of the shadow across the moon is a sign that there are valleys and mountains on the moon. He looked at the same thing as Galileo, but possibly because he was a much less accomplished artist, didn't recognize what he was seeing as depth. I read about this in a book called The Invention of Science--absolutely fascinating.