PREHISTORIC TO MIDDLE AGE ASTRONOMY Over the course of countless millennia, astronomy has served as a widespread source of curiosity amongst mankind. The stars, planets and various other objects that engulf our skies have captured the interests of this world’s inhabitants, from the simplest of tribesmen to city dwelling scholars and philosophers alike. As early as 32,000 years ago, humans are believed to have been tracking cosmic cycles like our Moon’s phases (Burnham, Dyer & Kanpipe 22). These observations led to globally recognized concepts in our civilization such as time, the use of calendars and the ability to predict seasonal changes. Before the massive leap in progress made during the 20th century, man’s accumulated knowledge of the
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period. Building off the findings of Hipparchus, Ptolemy invented a means of predicting the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars – all the while in compliance with the Earth-centered teachings of Aristotelian cosmology. Not one to avoid controversy though, Ptolemy introduced the rogue theory of epicycles – smaller circular orbits in addition to the main orbit. Ptolemy is also accredited as authoring the Almagest, a collection of Greco-Babylonian observations with over 1,000 stars in 48 constellations with respective latitude, longitude and brilliance of each. Composed 500 years after the death of Aristotle, the Almagest would go on to serve as the foremost source for the planetary studies for the next 14 centuries (Hoskin …show more content…
Brahe would go on to mentor an assistant named Johannes Kepler, who came up with the three laws of planetary motion. Theses laws would establish a concrete explanation behind the harmony amongst the stars. One of the most groundbreaking Copernican astronomers, Galileo Galilei was the first stargazer to observe the heavens with a telescope. This was a monumental happening – craters and rocky terrain on the surface of the Moon; the moons of Jupiter; spots on the surface of the sun; the phases of Venus. These findings were detailed in 1610’s The Starry Messenger, and amazed astronomers around the world. Unfortunately, the Church deemed Galileo’s discoveries to be conflicting with the Ptolemaic model and denied the reality of Jupiter’s satellites along with even refusing to look through a telescope (Burnham, Dyer & Kanpipe 39). In 1633 a Roman court found him to be guilty of teaching the Copernican philosophies, forcing him to condemn his theories. Galileo would go on to spend nearly the next decade on house arrest, until his death in
period. Building off the findings of Hipparchus, Ptolemy invented a means of predicting the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars – all the while in compliance with the Earth-centered teachings of Aristotelian cosmology. Not one to avoid controversy though, Ptolemy introduced the rogue theory of epicycles – smaller circular orbits in addition to the main orbit. Ptolemy is also accredited as authoring the Almagest, a collection of Greco-Babylonian observations with over 1,000 stars in 48 constellations with respective latitude, longitude and brilliance of each. Composed 500 years after the death of Aristotle, the Almagest would go on to serve as the foremost source for the planetary studies for the next 14 centuries (Hoskin …show more content…
Brahe would go on to mentor an assistant named Johannes Kepler, who came up with the three laws of planetary motion. Theses laws would establish a concrete explanation behind the harmony amongst the stars. One of the most groundbreaking Copernican astronomers, Galileo Galilei was the first stargazer to observe the heavens with a telescope. This was a monumental happening – craters and rocky terrain on the surface of the Moon; the moons of Jupiter; spots on the surface of the sun; the phases of Venus. These findings were detailed in 1610’s The Starry Messenger, and amazed astronomers around the world. Unfortunately, the Church deemed Galileo’s discoveries to be conflicting with the Ptolemaic model and denied the reality of Jupiter’s satellites along with even refusing to look through a telescope (Burnham, Dyer & Kanpipe 39). In 1633 a Roman court found him to be guilty of teaching the Copernican philosophies, forcing him to condemn his theories. Galileo would go on to spend nearly the next decade on house arrest, until his death in