Celestial sphere

important to us today. Copernicus had important life events that not only changed his life, but changed the world’s future. Copernicus attended the University of Cracow, while living with Novara. “By 1508, Copernicus had begun developing his own celestial model, a heliocentric planetary system. During the second century A.D., Ptolemy had invented a geometric planetary model, which…

Anymore? Before the sixteenth century, the common knowledge of astronomy was based off the Pythagoras, Aristotle, and the Ptolemaic model. They said the Earth was the center of the universe and everything, including the sun, planets, and the heavenly spheres rotated about its center. Aristotle established the principle that there were only seven planets considered wandering stars: Earth, moon, sun, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter. Anything besides these stars were fixed stars. He postulated…

The Comedy Illuminating Florence is a oil on canvas painting by Domenico di Michelino created in 1456. The painting depicts Dante Alighieri along the city of Florence, Mount Purgatory, the Earthly Paradise and the Celestial Spheres. Domenico di Michelino, an Italian painter, born in Florence, primarily depicted scenes from the Bible. It is not surprising then that like many other artist, Dante's Divine Comedy called to him and like many other artists, he attempted to paint Dante's words on…

method is the story of Aristotle and his geocentric theory. In this theory Aristotle and Ptolemy proposed that the Earth was the center of the Universe. The Crystalline spheres, which in ancient times was transparent sphere that lied in the heavens, were the other planets, moon and sun. He proposed that they circled the Earth in a Celestial circular motion. The stars were said to be fixed objects that moved in a Terrestrial linear motion. But like it can happen with any hypothesis, this was…

During the High Renaissance (1490-1530), Raffaello Sanzio, also known as Raphael, was summoned to the Vatican by Pope Julius II and given the largest, most important commission of his life. He was asked to decorate the Papal Apartments, which included the Stanze Della Segnatura. The School of Athens by Raphael created in 1510 was to depict worldly (Greek) and spiritual (Christian) thinking (Slack, 2017). This painting represents all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists from…

When the shadow of one celestial body, the Moon or another planet in our solar system for example, moves in front of another’s shadow an eclipse takes place. There are several types of eclipses, which all depend on the shadow that is involved. There are three different types of shadows, the umbra, penumbra, and antumbra. Each type of shadow varies by its darkness and position within the full shadow. The umbra is the dark center, the antumbra is the light center, and the penumbra is the light…

Anaximander's lectures on cosmology and mathematics while in Miletus; these also influenced him. (O'Connor & Robertson, 1999d) Pythagoras taught that the earth was a sphere, and he is claimed to be the first man to do so. (Mcclung,2011) However, according to Mcclung, there seems to be no concrete basis for this theory except that “he thought spheres were the most perfect…

or the universe around us. Of course, with new discoveries being made by scientists, the old theocentric views of the Medieval period slowly were challenged and put at rest. Specifically, beginning with Copernicus’ “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” the idea that the universe is geocentric is directly challenged with the new theory: the universe is heliocentric. Later, this theory became…

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).…

communication using human intermediary e.g., prophecy or dreams, whereas deductive divination is divine communication through events and phenomena --- also provoked situations. For example, lots or extispicy using animal entrails, or passive, such as celestial observation. Nevertheless, its revelation is communicated through events and phenomena that can be observed. Inspired divination consists of official and informal prophecy, and dreams. Deductive divination comes through two types of…