Astronomy%20Early%20History

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Astronomy Early History
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What is Astronomy?

• Astronomy is the scientific study of celestrial
  objects (such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae,
  star clusters and galaxies) and phenomena that
  originate outside the Earths atmosphere.
• It is concerned with the evolution, physics,
  chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial
  objects, as well as the formation and development
  of the universe.

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We are not studying Astrology!!!!

• Astrology the belief system which claims that
  human affairs are correlated with the positions
  of celestial objects.
• We will not be reading palms, tarot cards or
  checking our horoscopes in this class. So know
  the difference!

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Early history

• Early cultures identified celestial objects with
  gods and spirits. This is where Astronomy and
  Astrology share their origins.
• They related these objects (and their movements)
  to phenomena such as rain, drought, seasons, and
  tides.
• The first "professional" astronomers were priests
  (such as the Magi), and that their understanding
  of the heavens was directly related to the divine.

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Mesapotamia

• Babylonian star catalogues dating from about 1200
  BC.
• These tablets documented
• length of daylight over a solar year,
• Constellations
• Planet movement
• Lunar cycles and more.

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Egypt

• Culture and Religion based on the stars.
• The pyramids were based on alignment with
  different stars.

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India

• earliest to use Algebra to solve astronomical
  problems.
• Also developed methods for calculations of the
  motions and places of various planets, their
  rising and setting, and the calculation of
  eclipses.

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China

• Chinese astronomers were able to precisely
  predict comets and eclipses.
• First to record "guest stars" which suddenly
  appeared among the fixed stars.
• They were the first to record a supernova.

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Greece

• The Ancient Greeks developed astronomy, which
  they treated as a branch of mathematics, to a
  highly sophisticated level.
• The first geometrical, three-dimensional models
  to explain the apparent motion of the planets
  were developed.
• First to propose that the Earth rotates around
  its axis.