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| Blogger Summer Circus Giveaway Hop |
Day 10
Early Astronomers
The astronomical work of astronomers like Ptolemy was crucial to the Egyptian civilization because the resulting calendars enabled the priests to predict the flooding of the Nile, upon which the community’s agriculture depended, and based on which they had developed an elaborate and extensive network of irrigation channels.
Other early civilizations studied the stars. In the land of the Babylonians (which became Iraq) they kept astronomical records up to 5000 years ago.
The Chinese are believed to have been the first calendar makers, dating back to 1300 BC.
Polynesian seafarers in the Southern Seas knew in ancient times how to navigate the vast oceans by the stars.
Across the continent of South America, many civilizations studied the stars. One of the most famous of these is the Mayans, for the records they left behind.
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| The Solar System |
Mediaeval Astronomers
Although Ptolemy had been the first to chart the movement of the planets of the Solar System, he thought they (and the sun) revolved round the Earth.
Copernicus was the first to suspect our planetary system was heliocentric, and published his arguments in 1543. This upset the Catholic Church, whose teachings held the view that the Earth was the centre of our planetary system.
In 1572, Danish astronomer Tyco Brahe, spotted a super-bright light which was an explosion in the constellation Cassiopeia. This discovery put paid to Ptolemy’s view that the outer stars were fixed.
In 1609 Galileo invented a really useful telescope, which meant astronomers could study the movement of the planets and moons in much greater detail. Jupiter’s moons were revealed for the first time.
Galileo’s life’s work was to promote the hypothesis that the Earth and the planets in our system revolved round the sun, and he suffered the wrath of the Catholic Church as a result.
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