Early AstronomySpringer Science & Business Media, 29/08/1996 - 268 من الصفحات People must have watched the skies from time immemorial. Human beings have always shown intellectual curiosity in abundance, and before the invention of modern distractions people had more time-and more mental energy-to devote to stargazing than we have. Megaliths, Chinese oracle bones, Babylonian clay tablets, and Mayan glyphs all yield evi dence of early peoples' interest in the skies. To understand early astronomy we need to be familiar with various phenomena that could-and still can-be seen in the sky. For instance, it seems that some early people were interested in the points on the horizon where the moon rises or sets and marked the directions of these points with megaliths. These directions go through a complicated cycle-much more complicated than the cycle of the phases of the moon from new to full and back to new, and more complicated than the cycle of the rising and setting directions of the sun. Other peoples were interested in the irregular motions of the planets and in the way in which the times of rising of the various stars varied through the year, so we need to know about these phenomena, i. e. , about retrogression and about heliacal rising, to usc the technical terms. The book opens with an explanation of these matters. Early astronomers did more than just gaze in awe at the heavenly bodies; they tried to understand the complex details of their movements. By 300 H. C. |
المحتوى
Early Stargazers | 1 |
Megalithic Astronomy | 45 |
The Babylonians | 64 |
The Egyptians | 82 |
The Chinese | 84 |
The Greeks | 110 |
The Astronomy of Aryabhata | 178 |
Arabic Astronomy | 190 |
The Mayas | 196 |
The European Renaissance | 205 |
طبعات أخرى - عرض جميع المقتطفات
عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
accurate alignments Almagest almanac angle anomalistic period apogee armillary astronomy axis azimuth Babylonian Brahe calculate calendar called celestial equator celestial pole celestial sphere Chinese circle constellations Copernicus correct cycle declination diameter direction distance earth eccentric-quotient ecliptic Egyptian epicycle equal equant equator equinox Euctemon Eudoxus fact Figure full moon give Greek Griffith Observatory Guo Shoujing heavens heliacal rising Hipparchus Hipparchus's horizon interval Jupiter Kepler later latitude length longitude manda Mars mathematical Maya mean sun measured Megalithic Mercury meters midsummer midwinter modern months moon moonrise motion moves round nodes observations opposite parallax planet position precession prosthaphaeresis Ptolemy Ptolemy's radius result retrogression revolution rotation round the ecliptic saros Saturn sexagesimal shadow sidereal period southernmost speed stades stars stone Stonehenge summer solstice sunrise sunset synodic period tablets theory velocity Venus vertical visible whole number winter solstice Yuan zodiac