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.
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very disappointing,
By Rufous Tinamou (Etats-Unis) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Early Astronomy (Springer Study Edition) (Paperback)
Much of the content of this book is simple but tedious arithmetic and graphical presentations which give the impression of an unconvincing mix of documented fact and conjecture.Ample inclusion of much equally unconvincing and largely irrelevant terminology ("The Babylonians also measured... ...using a unit called SHE which literally means 'barley corn'") does little to shed light on the subject. One could go on but perhaps most telling is the author's allocation of 6 pages (one mostly blank and two and a half containing charts and a photograph) to "Arabic Astronomy," from which came many star names still in use throughout the world and which, some might say, passed almost the entire heritage of astronomy to the Europeans when their commercial interests turned them to navigation at the end of the 15th century (a point not mentioned by the author - his characterization of the Hellenistic Greeks as "Europeans" would probably have been disputed by any member of that ancient culture).
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great scholarship and great presentation,
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This review is from: Early Astronomy (Hardcover)
This book is a masterpiece! It covers early astronomy all around the world, not just all around the Medeterranean. The explainations are also excellent!
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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megalithic astronomy, saros length, latitudinal period, sighra epicycle, manda epicycle, constant speed round, southernmost moonrise, vicarious theory, eccentric presentation, anomalistic period, retrograde arcs, angle between the ecliptic, midwinter sunset, angle between the moon, regular circular motions, synodic period, sidereal periods, nearest day, celestial latitude, mean planet Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Greeks, Early Stargazers, Griffith Observatory, Guo Shoujing, The European Renaissance, Tycho Brahe, Ulugh Beg, The Mayas, Late Period, The Astronomer's Tools, The Classical Greeks, Photograph Robin Rector Krupp, Other Megalithic Structures, Zhi Yuan, Arabic Astronomy, Next Ptolemy, The Astronomy of Aryabhata, Central Stonehenge, Dresden Codex, Later Developments, Christian Severin, Milky Way, Great Bear Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
megalithic astronomy, saros length, latitudinal period, sighra epicycle, manda epicycle, constant speed round, southernmost moonrise, vicarious theory, eccentric presentation, anomalistic period, retrograde arcs, angle between the ecliptic, midwinter sunset, angle between the moon, regular circular motions, synodic period, sidereal periods, nearest day, celestial latitude, mean planet Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Greeks, Early Stargazers, Griffith Observatory, Guo Shoujing, The European Renaissance, Tycho Brahe, Ulugh Beg, The Mayas, Late Period, The Astronomer's Tools, The Classical Greeks, Photograph Robin Rector Krupp, Other Megalithic Structures, Zhi Yuan, Arabic Astronomy, Next Ptolemy, The Astronomy of Aryabhata, Central Stonehenge, Dresden Codex, Later Developments, Christian Severin, Milky Way, Great Bear Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
19
books
cite this book:
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- The Star of Bethlehem : The Legacy of the Magi by Michael R. Molnar in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Theology And Modern Physics (Ashgate Science and Religion Series) by Peter E. Hodgson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Multiwavelength Cosmology (Astrophysics and Space Science Library) by Manolis Plionis in Back Matter
- Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook (Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World) by Georgia L. Irby-Massie in Back Matter
- The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy by Michael Hoskin in Back Matter
See all 19 books citing this book
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