Babylonian astronomy

The Babylonians were one of the first civilizations to develop a language and began to write down discoveries and stories of their people. Among these writings is the recorded observations of the night sky. Throughout the Babylonian history, the population selects one person to specialize in writing down the observations. These chosen ones were named Scribes. This was an extremely important role to play in their society and Scribes performed the task of charting the movement of the stars and planets they could see with the naked eye. The writings were exceptionally detailed and were in order according to daily, monthly and yearly positions of planets and stars. Not only were Scribes documenting the sky, according to an article written on Dawdlez, “Back then, astronomy had quite a significant mystical component so these scribes also interpreted omens for the king and warned him about potential future events. Afterwards the records were archived so that future astronomers could use them to learn to make their own observations.”(10 Ancient…

Aristarchus of Samos was not only an astronomer but also a mathematician. He lived between 310–230 B.C. and belonged to the Pythagorean School of Thought (Heath). His mathematical knowledge helped him to discover great advances in the world of astronomy. His writing The Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon is his only surviving text (Aristarchus ‘16). Aristarchus’ description of the solar system was similar to our modern one and this was about 1500 years before Copernicus made his geocentric…

The geocentric theory, which theorized that the sun, moon, and stars all orbited the earth in small rings called epicycles, was the widely accepted and accurate model of the universe at the time according to the Church (Williams). The Ptolemaic model looked to improve the field of astronomy, as Ptolemy concluded that the Aristotelian homocentric model of spherical shells was not an accurate enough as an astronomical theory. As the Church was at odds with Aristotelian theories such as the…

diseases, and wouldn't lose their spouse's trust. Respect was another great thing that shaped up the Babylonian society, and it made them more civilized, rather than living like animals. Responsibility was also a big part of their society so people…

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).…

James Donald, the head of the Antikythera Research Project, “it’s nice to have more solid proof to help end people's doubts.” The Antikythera Mechanism is built so well that there should be precursors. In ancient times, bronze was a highly valuable and recyclable material suggesting that the first few revisions were melted to make this one. There has also been some writings to suggest that the Antikythera Mechanism had others like it that didn’t survive, or have been found yet. Even though it’s…

The ancient Greeks contributed much to modern astronomy, inventing and utilizing the scientific method to study and chart the heavens through experiments, careful observation and meticulous records of their findings. However, they were not only good at the observational aspect of astronomy, but also the theoretical aspect as well, speculating about the Universe's size, structure and nature, and about everything that the Universe encompassed. Indeed, the Greeks were masters of this art, and their…

Brahmagupta and His Significant Discovery Brahmagupta was born in 598 in Rajasthan, India and he was an Indian astronomer that may not get all the credit he deserves. Being an orthodox Hindu, he was very interested in the Hindu yuga system that focused on the measurement of the ages of mankind. Even though he mostly devoted his time to Indian astronomy, Brahmagupta when writing his books implemented a great amount of mathematics. This was seen especially in his most famous work…

As Banneker grew into a man, with the farm he inherited he became a successful farmer of tobacco. In 1788 this man named George Ellicott loaned Banneker a book and equipment to begin a more formal study of astronomy. During the following year Banneker sent George his work calculating a solar eclipse. At some point Thomas Jefferson became aware of the views of slavery from Banneker by a letter that was written to him. Banneker and Jefferson had different views, Banneker thought that the slavery…

With my increased interest about space following the last essay, I choose to read the essay, “James Webb telescope will truly do what Hubble only dreamed of” by Ethan Seigal. The essay was about the capabilities of the new James Webb telescope, that is being launched in October 2018, and paying respects to the telescope Hubble as well. The author started out by listing the accomplishments made by Hubble, which was first launched in 1990, and the numerous milestones that were reached with the…