| Physical description |
1 online resource (x, 268 pages 139 illustrations) |
| Series |
Springer Study Edition, 0172-6234
|
|
Springer study edition.
|
| Contents |
1. Early Stargazers -- The Celestial Bowl -- The Constellations -- The Rotation of the Heavens -- The Sun -- The Moon -- The Planets -- The Stars -- The Astronomer's Tools -- 2. Megalithic Astronomy -- Stonehenge -- Other Megalithic Structures -- 3. The Babylonians -- Early Period -- Sexagesimal Numerals -- Late Period -- 4. The Egyptians -- 5. The Chinese -- Chinese Units -- 6. The Greeks -- The Early Thinkers -- The Classical Greeks -- Hipparchus -- Ptolemy -- 7. The Astronomy of?ryabha$$ \mathop t\limits_. $$a -- The Sun -- The Moon -- The Planets -- Further Topics -- Unwritten Astronomy -- 8. Arabic Astronomy -- 9. The Mayas -- The Moon -- Venus -- Eclipse Table -- The Accuracy of the Maya Calendar -- 10. The European Renaissance -- Copernicus -- Tycho Brahe -- Kepler -- Appendix 1. Hipparchus's Table of Chords -- Appendix 2. Calculation of the Eccentric-Quotient for the Sun, and the Longitude of its Apogee -- Appendix 3. Ptolemy's Table of Chords -- Appendix 4. Calculating the Radius of the Moon's Epicycle -- Appendix 5. The Eccentric-Quotient and Apogee of Mars -- Appendix 6. Reversed Epicycles -- Further Reading -- Sources of Information. |
| Summary |
The earliest investigations that can be called scientific are concerned with the sky: they are the beginnings of astronomy. Many early civilizations produced astronomical texts, and several cultures that left no written records left monuments and artifacts-ranging from rock paintings to Stonehenge-that show a clear interest in astronomy. Civilizations in China, Mesopotamia, India and Greece had highly developed astronomies, and the astronomy of the Mayas was by no means negligible. Greek astronomy, as developed by the medieval Arab philosophers, evolved into the astronomy of Copernicus. This displaced the earth from the central stationary position that almost all earlier astronomies had assumed. Soon thereafter, in the first decades of the seventeenth century, Kepler found the true shape of the planetary orbits and Galileo introduced the telescope for astronomical observations. |
| Subject |
Physics.
|
| ISBN |
9781461243229 (electronic bk.) |
|
146124322X (electronic bk.) |
|
9780387948225 |
|
0387948228 |
| Standard Number |
10.1007/978-1-4612-4322-9 |
|
