When looking at the history of astronomy, many will often first think of the ancient Greeks and later on the men of the Age of Enlightenment and their discoveries. However documents from ancient China show that they were observing and recording celestial movements long before the Greeks.
As tradition dictated that the rulers of China should receive their political mandate from the sky, astronomy soon became a dominant science in China. The main responsibility of political power was to keep the Earth in total harmony with the sky. This obligation was called the “Mandate of Heaven.” The stars were bestowed with astrological meaning, both enabling predictions that influenced daily life as well as major political strategies, and thus astronomy
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As early as 2254 BCE, the Records of the Grand Historian, or Shi Ji, and the Book of Ancient Time, or Shang Shu, provide writings that state how Emperor Yao got astronomers to calculate solstices and predict seasonal changes to assist farmers, as well as his advisors. He assigned officers to observe patterns such as the sun rising and setting, and the appearance of stars at night. This allowed a solar and lunar calendar with 366 days to be created (Astronomy in Early Chinese Sources). The Book of Documents also dated four asterisms to the 21st century BCE. Stars and their movements were being recorded during the Shang dynasty in 1500 BCE, and oracle bone writings from 1400–1200 BCE indicate that the Yin used a year of 12 lunar months, each of 29 or 30 days, with an extra month every three years. Records and star catalogues of astonishing detail were kept from 600 BC onwards (Sarma). Then in recent years, archaeological work done at Taosi, an ancient site in Shanxi, shows the possibility of an early observatory being built to aid astronomical officers dating back to 2100 BCE–1600 BCE (Pankenier, Liu and Des …show more content…
Ancient Chinese astronomers poetically named these explosions ‘guest stars’ and a full catalog of them. This catalog was maintained over centuries and carefully noted their various appearances and offers accurate information about their positions which has enabled modern astronomers to find remnants of these explosions in the sky today (International Dunhuang Project). Throughout the years, the Chinese also developed three different cosmological models. The first model was the Gai Tian. This model was a hemispherical dome that conceived the heavens as a hemisphere lying over the Earth, which was dome-shaped. The second model saw the heavens as a celestial sphere. Then finally the third model viewed the heavens as floating about in rare intervals (Needham and
Many of the heavenly bodies were considered to be the representations of deities. The master of reason, Aristotle, stated once long ago that everything was made of only five elements the final being what makes up the heavenly bodies, after all they lacked the proper technologies to know differently. It was Galileo in 1610, using his telescope, that found dark spots on the sun. So as technological innovations occur our understanding of physics and astronomy grow. Newton in 1687 discovered the laws of gravity, suggested that all the solar and stellar bodies operated the same.
The surest foundation for the origin of science in its practical form is to be found in the ìco–rdination and standardization of the knowledge of common sense and of industry.î[1] One of the first occurrences of this co–rdination can be traced back to 2500 BCE in the form of edicts from the ancient Babylonian rulers, who issued royal standards of length, weight and capacity. Non-Semitic Sumerians also laid down the elements of mathematics and geometry at that time, making use of fractions, decimals, circles and radial angles. But knowledge as we know it today was tightly woven with magical notions, and as both spread westward they instilled in European thought a reverence for ìspecial numbers, their connections to the gods and the application of geometrical diagrams to the prediction of the future.î[2] As well, the ancient Babylonians were fascinated by the heavens. They were the first to make a map of the stars and associate them with animals like the Ram, Crab and Scorpion, names that we still use to this day. They also realized the periodicity and reliability of astronomical movement and phenomena, and were soon able to predict many of them. Tablets have been found dating to the sixth century BCE that predicted the relative positions of the sun and moon, as well as forecasted the occurrences of eclipses.[3] Out of all this knowledge the Babylonians built up a fantastic system of astrology, through which the starsówhich were thought to fix and foretell the course of human affairsówould give up their secrets.
& MCMILLAN, S. 2008. Astronomy Today - Sixth Edition, United States of America, Pearson Education, Inc.
For Gallus told us that the other kind of celestial globe, which was solid and contained no hollow space, was a very early invention, the first one of that kind having been constructed by Thales of Mileus, and later marked by Eudoxus with the constellations and stars which are fixed in the sky. (Price 56)
2, Alter Dinsmore, Cleminshaw H. Clarence, Philips G John. Pictorial Astronomy. United States: Sidney Feinberg, 1963.
On March 29, 1974, a couple of workers were digging a water well on the east side of Mount Li outside of the city of Xi’an. The workers uncovered a single terracotta figure and called the government authorities who investigated the matter. Soon, government archeologists were sent to the site. The unearthed great clay army that has baffled modern day craftsmen, intrigued archeologists, and amazed the general public. Before this discovery, no one knew about the First Emperor of China. Forty years later, we know a good deal about his legacy.
Thousands of years ago, ancient people looked up at the night sky and spotted unfamiliar objects in the sky, known as stars. Some people saw the stars as a tool to navigate at night and to keep up with the seasons. Others were completely clueless about what the stars were and why there were up in the sky. This eventually led to curiosity and the beginning of astronomy. The very first astronomers grouped stars into constellations, which basically is connecting the stars to make an imaginary outline of people, object, or animals. This allowed the astronomers to keep track of the movement of the planets and the sun, which allowed them to create the very first accurate calendar to know when it was the right time to harvest and plant.
I know that astronomy is getting more popular by the day since the comet came and all those people got killed. But that really did not have anything to do with astronomy, so I am not going to get into that. To me astronomy is really cool. If you have a telescope and it is a clear night you can see different constellations such as: Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Hercules, Pegasus, Perseus there are many more that is so cool. But it is even cooler to look up and see them in the sky. To do all of that you first have to be in the correct place. What you can do first is look for the north star, when you find that then you are all set. If you cannot find it just simply face north and look for the brightest star in that direction. If you still cannot find it buy a compass then hopefully you will find it. If you still cannot find it ask somebody, I made no grantee that you would find it these ways. That is really all I know about astronomy, but after this paper I bet you I will know a whole lot more.
This source gave incredible information about Ancient China. It gave many details and facts about ancient astronomy, technology, medicine, and mathematics in Ancient China. It gave information on many inventions and medical values of Ancient China. It also gave great details about mathematics in Ancient China.
The result is a disk of stars that can be seen as the bright band on the sky from our perspective inside the disk. Therefore, the concept of “galaxy” and the place of the solar system within it were starting to be developed. William Herschel in 1785, for example, was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way and the position of the Sun by counting the number of stars in different regions of the sky, but his results were a shape of the galaxy with the solar system close to the center. By using a method of cataloguing globular clusters, Harlow Shapley came with a flat disk with the Sun far from the center. Although, he did not take in account the absorption of light wavelengths by interstellar dust, present in the galactic plane.
Astronomy was born in the five cradles of civilization, along the Nile Valley in Egypt, the Indus Valley along the western region of the Indian subcontinent, the Chinese city states on the banks of the Yellow River, the ancient regions of Me-soamerica from central Mexico down to the Andean South America and the an-cient city states of Mesopotamia in the fertile crescent. Each of these ancient cul-tures incorporated astronomy into calendar making, religion, mythology, and astrology. Many of these civilizations kept various forms of stars charts, but some of the most complete came Mesopotamia.
Evidence of astrology, the pseudo-science of using the positions of the planets, stars, sun, and moon to predict human events tracks back to the dawn of civilization (Gilbert and Pingree 1). Astrology, passing from civilization to civilization, progressed from its Mesopotamian roots to the Greek interpretation that astrologers continue to use to this day. Modern society considers astrology as just a way to pass time, whereas ancient societies considered astrology vital for preventing disasters. However, astrology’s contribution to current studies such as astronomy, the science of studying celestial bodies, makes astrology influential to modern civilization (Hays 4). Also, Astrology provides insight into the mindset of early humanity’s perception
Since the first Egyptian farmers discovered the annual reappearance of Sirius just before dawn a few days before the yearly rising of the Nile, ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean have sought to explain the movements of the heavens as a sort of calendar to help guide them conduct earthly activities. Counting phases of the moon or observing the annual variations of day length could, after many years' collection of observations, serve as vital indicators for planting and harvesting times, safe or stormy season for sailing, or time to bring the flocks from winter to summer pastures. With our millennia of such observation behind us, we sometimes forget that seeing and recording anything less obvious than the rough position of sun or nightly change of moon phase requires inventing both accurate observation tools (a stone circle, a gnomon used to indicate the sun's shadow, a means to measure the position of stars in the sky) and a system of recording that could be understood by others. The ancient Greeks struggled with these problems too, using both native technology and inquiry, and drawing upon the large body of observations and theories gradually gleaned from their older neighbors across the sea, Egypt and Babylonia. Gradually moving from a system of gods and divine powers ordering the world to a system of elements, mathematics, and physical laws, the Greeks slowly adapted old ideas to fit into a less supernatural, hyper-rational universe.
One cultural group was especially important for their discoveries in astronomy, the Egyptians. They were especially important because they were one of the first groups of people to create an accurate calendar. This calendar was different than others because it was based off of the Sun and stars rather than the moon. The calendars purpose was to make correct estimates of when to plan...
One thing us humans have never been able to fully understand is astronomy. Always an unexplained mystery, astronomy also serves as a way to keep time and predict the future. The word “astronomy” is defined as the study of heavenly bodies, meaning anything in the sky such as stars, galaxies, comets, planets, nebulae, and so on. Many people, if not everyone, are amazed by the night sky on a clear, moonless night. Astronomy dates back to ancient times when peoples such as the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Chinese kept written records of astronomical events and occurrences.