a brief history of astronomybergeron/osher92/history_of_astro_1.pdf · a brief history of astronomy...

A Brief History of Astronomy

Paul Bergeron

Department of Physics and Astronomy,University of Utah, Salt Lake City

March 29, 2018

Course Plan

Objective

To come away with an understanding of

I how astronomy developed,

I what contemporary astronomy studies,

I and what’s in the winter sky.

Course Plan

Discussion Schedule

1. History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy

2. History of Astronomy – Scientific Era

3. The Night Sky – Sky Orientation & Constellations

4. The Night Sky – Earth, Moon, Sun, and other Phenomena

5. Contemporary Astronomy – Cosmology

6. Contemporary Astronomy – Current Experiments

What would you like to have covered?

Today’s Plan

History of Astronomy – Ancient Astronomy

I A historical perspective

I What is science?

I Purpose of initial astronomy

I Astronomy in different cultures

Disclaimer

I am a physicist, not a historian

We will discuss history, science, and mythology.

But telling stories is mythologizing, too

Parables 6= History

Archimedes (ca. 287-212 BCE)

I Renowned inventor, scientist, and mathematician

I Came close to inventing calculus

I Proved Acirlce = πr2, determined π to ∼ 1 : 1000

I Famously engineered defensive machines that thwartedthe Romans

I Studied and explained levers; created block-and-tacklepulley systems

Did he really...

...run naked through Syracuse after discovering his eponymousbuoyancy principle?...pull a ship with his little finger, using pulleys to multiply theforce?

TimelineMediterranean Mesopotamia

400 BCE

800 BCE

1200 BCE

1600 BCE

2000 BCE

2400 BCE

2800 BCE

3200 BCEInvention of Writing

Bronze Age Begins 3000 BCE

Iron Age Begins

Minoan Civilization BeginsGiza Pyramids Constructed

Temple of Karnak

Deir el-Bahari

Minoan Eruption

Armana Period


400 BCE

800 BCE

1200 BCE

1600 BCE

2000 BCE

2400 BCE

2800 BCE



Iron Age Begins


Temple of Karnak

Deir el-Bahari

Minoan Eruption

Armana Period

Uruk Period EndsSumerian Civilization Begins

Gilgamesh(?)

Akkadian Empire Begins

Neo-Sumerian Empire Begins

Code of Ur-NammuBabylonian Empire Begins

Code of HammurabiAssyrian Empire Begins

Library of Ashurbanipal

Medes-Persian RevolutionNeo-Babylonian EmpirePersia defeats Babylon

Battle of Issus (Alexander vs Darius)


400 BCE

800 BCE

1200 BCE

1600 BCE

2000 BCE

2400 BCE

2800 BCE



Iron Age Begins


Temple of Karnak

Deir el-Bahari

Minoan Eruption

Armana PeriodTrojan War(?)Early ‘Rome’?

Archaic PeriodRoman ‘Regal’ Period

Classical PeriodRoman Republic

Hellenistic Period


Gilgamesh(?)









400 BCE

800 BCE

1200 BCE

1600 BCE

2000 BCE

2400 BCE

2800 BCE



Iron Age Begins


Temple of Karnak

Deir el-Bahari

Minoan Eruption

Armana PeriodTrojan War(?)Early ‘Rome’?

Archaic PeriodRoman ‘Regal’ Period

Pythagoras: Spherical Earth

Classical PeriodRoman Republic

Aristarchus: HeliocentrismHellenistic Period

Erastosthenes: REarthHipparchus


Gilgamesh(?)








What is Astronomy?

getchemistryhelp.com

What is Science?

I Process of testing and explainingthe natural world

I tests are reproducible

I hypothesis make falsifiable predictions

I limited by experimental accuracy

Astronomy is the study of...

“...the origins, physics, and evolution of plan-ets, stars, galaxies, and the universe as awhole.”

–Department of Astronomy, OSU

Early AstronomyPurely observational – focused on cataloguing

Applied for

I Marking the seasons

I Aligning lunisolar calendars

I Telling time at night

I NavigationI Setting Religious events

I astrology: divination/prognosticationI religious/philosophical cosmologies

Venus Tablet, ca. 1500 BCE

K.160, The British Museum

Etruscan Liver Chart, ca 400-300 BCE Antikythera Mechanism, ca 150-100 BCE

Wikipedia Commons (Museo Civico) National Archeological Museum of Athens

Egypt

Star Clock/Decan ChartImage Credits: Wikimedia Commons

ca 1200 BCE ca 1473 BCE

Decans:

I specific 36 star groups

I ∼ 36 groups in a year

I 1 group every 10 days

Lunisolar Calendar (Luxor)

Image Credit: hudsonvalleygeologist, blogspot

I Solar Calendar:

I 36, 10-day weeks

I Lunar Calendar:

I 12 months, new moon

I Syncrhonized: heliacal rising ofSirius

I 5 day intercallary month

I month of rest

I spiritually dangerous

Mesoamerica (Maya)Uxmal Image Credit: James Q. Jacobs

I Codices show Venus synodic cycle

I Govenors Palace: Venusbuilt aligned not with Uxmal butwith Venus’s Northern extreme

Chitzen Itza Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

I Caracol: built observatory withline-of-sights for 20+ events

I Temple of KukulkanI Corners align with sunrise/set

for solar culmination at zenithI Kukulkan slithers at the equinox

AnasaziChaco Canyon (ca 900 - 1150 CE)

Image Credit: James Q. Jacobs

Alignments

Great Houses:

I Pueblo Bonito & Chetro Ketlon the East-West geodesic

I Pueblo Alto & Tsin KletsinNorth-South aligned

I Penasco Blanco & Una Vidalunar azimuthal maximum

I Pueblo Pintado & Kin Bineolalunar azimuthal minimum

Piedra del Sol

I Observation point: Sun ‘balances’ twoweeks before the summer solstice

I eclipse of 1097 with corona?

ChinaTaosi Observatory ca 2200-2100 BCE

Image Credit: He Nu, UNESCO/IAU

I 21-m wall forming an arc

I columns set into the wallfoundation

I pit aligned with pillar gaps

I 2 gaps aligned with solstices

Astronomy

Image Credit: Marilyn Shea, UMF

I bi (gnomon) for measurements

I experimental mixed with philosophicalTaoism, Confuscianism, & Buddhism

I 6 flat Earth schools (3 major)

I zenith culmination ⇒ Earth-Sundistance

a brief history of astronomybergeron/osher92/history_of_astro_1.pdf · a brief history of astronomy...

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