Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Malvar Campus
Malvar, Batangas
COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Name:

JERISSA L. BONILLA

Subject/Course/Section:

SCI 416 ASTRONOMY

Bachelor Elementary Education IV

Topic:

HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY

HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY
What is Astronomy?
the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical
universe as a whole.
EARLY ASTRONOMY
Early cultures identified celestial objects with gods and spirits.
believed that the first "professional" astronomers were priests, and that their
understanding of the "heavens" was seen as "divine"
The motion of the stars provided an essential calendar for predicting the weather
Paleolithic Period
caves of Lascaux in France, where a variety of paleolithic artwork are
found
Some specimens found in the caves might possibly depict the Pleiades
star cluster or the zodiac.
artifacts from the Paleolithic era are scarce and ambiguous
Neolithic Period
understanding of the skies and the calendar clearly bear deep meaning for
agricultural cultures
Many graves of this period are aligned with the cardinal directions
The most famous of the ancient monuments is Stonehenge

Prehistoric Times
Several of the planets have been known in this period
The ancients knew of 7 "planets": the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
The names for the seven days of the week come from the Norse gods:
Sunday (the Sun), Monday (the Moon), Tuesday (Mars/Tiw), Wednesday
(Mercury/Wodan), Thursday (Jupiter/Thor), Friday (Venus/Frigg), and
Saturday (Saturn/Soeternes).
History of Astronomy efforts by:
Babylonian
Greeks
Medieval European
Egyptian
Chinese
BABYLONIAN

The Babylonian had been observing the skies for centuries and had recorded
their observations in Astronomical diaries.
Astronomical diaries: collection of Babylonian
texts in which astronomical observations and political events are recorded.
Astronomers were concerned in the establishment of an accurate calendar, the
emphasis was on recording and calculating the motion of sun and moon
Using the observations of Babylonian astronomers had the ability to predict lunar
ad later solar eclipses with precise accuracy.
Babylonian astronomy compiled detailed stellar catalogues becoming the
principle of which we refer to as the Zodiac Calendar
Ancient Babylonian astronomy and astrological data records may have been
motivated by religious reasoning.

GREEKS
Thales of Miletus
geometer, military engineer, astronomer, and logician.
Influenced by Babylonians and Egyptians,
discovered the solstice and equinox
Anaximander of Miletus
The Greeks had a water clock or klepsydra that kept track of short periods of
time.
invented the gnomon on the sundial
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created a map of the known world.

Pythagoras of Samos
realized that the earth and sea are not static
have thought of the universe as rotating daily around an axis corresponding with
the axis of the earth.
the first to realize the Morning Star and Evening Star were the same.
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae
made important contributions to astronomy
determined the cause of an eclipse
He recognized that the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and Mercury move
Aristotle
Aristotle described that the earth is globe/sphere.
Aristotle elaborates and estimates the size of earth
Aristarchus of Samos
the original author of the heliocentric hypothesis
presented the first known model that placed the Sun at the center of the known
universe with the Earth revolving around it.
MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN
Medieval European astronomy by distinguishing it from three other astronomical
traditions with which it is related:
* the Classical World
* Arabic and Islamic Astronomy; and
* astronomy from the Renaissance to the mid-twentieth century
Computus
the science of the numbering and division of time
Timekeeping
Timekeeping provided the earliest locus of medieval astronomical observations
The liberal arts
The liberal arts presented the general medieval cosmological picture through the
study of ancient texts dealing with the four mathematical arts of the quadrivium:
astronomy and geometry, music and arithmetic.
The Ptolemaic tradition
The Ptolemaic tradition, enhanced by Arabic improvements, brought a new
concern with quantitative observations and computations to Western European
astronomy in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Solar horizon astronomy
Solar horizon astronomy reflects the ancient recognition, expressed by Isidore of
Seville.
Astrology
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Astrology used as its astronomical basis the calculation of the positions of the
stars and the seven classical planets for any chosen date or time.

EGYPTIAN

Egyptian astronomy begins in the depths of prehistory and the discovery of stone
circles at Nabta Playa.
The stone circle shows that they were accomplished at marking time and, it can
be assumed, predicting the coming of the floods.
They also developed a system of constellations
they developed another calendar based around the star Sirius
Egyptian astronomers used sundials to tell the time
the Egyptian astronomy began with recording the time of year for agricultural
periods, and may well have served a navigational purpose
The Egyptians built their monuments pointing in the cardinal directions and used
them to reflect important celestial occurrences revealing the time of year.

CHINESE

China based its calendar upon the phases of the moon but then added extra
months.
The Chinese calendar therefore had a thirteen-month year every two or three
years.
The Chinese developed three different cosmological models. The Gai Tian or
hemispherical dome; the Hun Tian school; Xuan Ye school
The Gai Tian, or hemispherical dome, model conceived the heavens as a
hemisphere lying over a dome-shaped earth.
The second cosmological model, associated with the Hun Tian school, saw the
heavens as a celestial sphere not unlike the spherical models developed in the
Greek and Hellenistic traditions.
The third cosmology, associated with the Xuan Ye school, viewed the heavens as
infinite in extent and the celestial bodies as floating about at rare intervals

THE PTOLEMAIC MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE

o Claudius Ptolemy lived in Rome around 100 AD. His model of the solar system
and heavenly sphere was a refinement of previous models developed by Greek
astronomers.
o Ptolemys major contribution, however, was that his model could so accurately
explain the motions of heavenly bodies, it became the model for understanding
the structure of the solar system.
4

o Ptolemys version of the solar system, assumed that the Earth was the center of
not only the solar system, but the entire universe.
I. The Ptolemaic model accounted for the apparent motions of the planets in a very
direct way, by assuming that each planet moved on a small sphere or circle, called
an epicycle that moved on a larger sphere or circle, called a deferent. The stars, it
was assumed, moved on a celestial sphere around the outside of the planetary
spheres.

II. Ptolemy's fame comes partly from what he figured out, but his influence was
largely because he wrote a great summary of everything known about astronomy.
Ptolemy insisted that the job of the astronomer was to explain the motions of the
wanderers using only uniform circular motion - the kind of motion that most gears
and wheels show. To make the planets appear to speed up and slow down, three
tricks were used. The epicycles we've just shown were the first trick. The second
trick was to move the observer out of the center of the circle, putting us into an
"eccentric" position. The third trick was called the equant and is illustrated here:

III. As an indication of exactly how good the Ptolemaic model is, modern
planetariums are built using gears and motors that essentially reproduce the
Ptolemaic model for the appearance of the sky as viewed from a stationary Earth. In
the planetarium projector, motors and gears provide uniform motion of the heavenly

bodies. One motor moves the planet projector around in a big circle, which in this
case is the deferent, and another gear or motor takes the place of the epicycle.

IV. While the fact that we base planetarium projectors on the Ptolemaic model of the
universe that was developed almost 2,000 years ago may seem impressive, a better
test of the model is how long the model was accepted by society. In this case, the
Ptolemaic model was not seriously challenged for over 1,300 years.
References:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/sciencemedicine/tp/042810GreekScientificInventions.
htm
http://www2.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-theme?idtheme=16
http://www.livius.org/k/kidinnu/kidinnu.htm
https://www.haikudeck.com/babylonians--astronomy-education-presentationqtz8ebQSkc#slide-4
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Astronomy/The_Early_Origins_of_Astronomy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astronomy
https://explorable.com/egyptian-astronomy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_astronomy
http://idp.bl.uk/4DCGI/education/astronomy/history.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astronomy
http://www.polaris.iastate.edu/EveningStar/Unit2/unit2_sub1.htm