SCIENCE 124_ASTRONOMY
ANCIENT ASTRONOMOY
THE GEOCENTRIC VIEW
▪ People have been fascinated by the night
skies since the beginning of civilization.
▪ Astronomy must be counted among the
first of the sciences.
▪ It was intimately related with the
development of basic mathematics.
TELLING TIME AND SEASONS
▪ Sundials were used all over the world
(Egyptian obelisk)
▪ Crescent moon angles predicted rainy
seasons (Nigeria)
SPECIAL SEASONAL ALIGNMENT
▪ Stonehenge (England -- and others) had
many alignments for solstices, equinoxes
and bright stars
▪ Sun Dagger (New Mexico) shows noon
on summer solstice; other effects in
winter & equinoxes
MESOPOTAMIAN ASTRONOMY
▪ MESOPOTAMIANS built observatories
starting ~6000 years ago:
▪ the ziggurats had seven levels, one for
each wandering object in the sky:
o Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
▪ Thus 7 days to the week
▪ They tracked stars --- groups rising
before sun at different times of year
implied seasonal beginnings for planting
and harvesting (zodiac).
▪ Divided circles in 360 degrees,
o each degree into 60 minutes
and
o each minute into 60 seconds --
we still use!
▪ Left written records in cuneiform
(kyoo·nee·uh·form) so we understand
them better.
MESOPOTAMIAN ASTRONOMY AND
INFLUENCES
▪ By 2000 BC Ur and other Sumerian and
Babylonia cities had large temples, or
ziggurats, usually aligned N-S, like most
Egyptian pyramids
▪ Egyptian and Mesopotamian knowledge
spread to Europe, Asia and Africa
ANCIENT ASTRONOMY – BABYLON
(Religious-Mystical)
▪ The earth is a flat disk which rises out of
the ocean with an
▪ inverted bowl (sky) over it. The stars are
fixed into place on the
▪ bowl.
▪ The planets move about against the
steady background (major
▪ (gods)
▪ Astronomy began as a systematic study
when the priest-astrologers started to
keep a careful watch on the movements
of the gods in order to warn their kings
about what the gods might be planning.
▪ Babylonians are responsible for dividing
the sky into 12 equal zones (zodiac)
through which the gods moved.
▪ Calendar was Lunar; a month started at
sundown on the day that the crescent
moon was first seen in the west. This
leads to 29-30 day months with 12-13
months per year.
OTHER ANCIENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
▪ Mesopotamians could predict planetary
positions -- synodic periods, e.g., Mars
returns to same location roughly every
780 days: 22 synodic periods = 47 years,
so records of old planetary positions
could give good locations.
▪ Knew about the SAROS cycle 2700
years ago: lunar eclipses definitely
occurred every 18.6 years.
▪ Chinese, Indians and Mayans also knew
these patterns
▪ Egyptians used astronomical events to
forecast Nile floods and harvest times.
GREEK ASTRONOMY: THE EARTH AT THE
CENTER
▪ While they may have built upon Egyptian
& Mesopotamian results (not much
preserved beyond calendars and
orientation of temples)
▪ Greeks tried to EXPLAIN and
UNDERSTAND, not just PREDICT
based upon repetitive cycles of motions.
 ▪ Thales (624--547 BCE) was claimed to
have predicted a solar eclipse.
▪ Anaxamander (611--547 BCE) of
Miletus (Asia Minor) produced a model:
Earth as a cylinder, Sun, Moon and stars
are fire filled wheels -- precursor of non-
mythical explanations.
EARLY GREEK IDEAS OF THE COSMOS
▪ By then, it was understood that
moonshine was reflected sunlight.
▪ Eudoxus (408--355 BCE) had planets
moving on multiple spheres, all
surrounding the Earth.
▪ These could explain Retrograde Loops
in the orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn -
- but didn't account for diversity thereof or
for variations in brightness of planets,
since their distance from Earth was fixed.

ANAXIMENES’ COSMOLOGY

▪ He said the earth was a flat disc

supported by air. Stars, sun and moon
are flat, fiery discs (or burning leaves)
circling over the earth “like a hat
spinning.”

PYTHAGORAS MODEL

▪ Anaximenes of Miletus (585--526 BCE)

believed stars were fixed to a solid,
crystalline vault surrounding the Earth --
the concept of the Celestial Sphere.
▪ Pythagoras (582--500 BCE) and his
students in Croton (S. Italy) argued that:
▪ Earth and all heavenly bodies are perfect
SPHERES.
▪ All celestial motions were perfect
CIRCLES.

IMPORTANCE OF EUDOXAN SYSTEM

▪ The first person to devise a model that
could explain the retrograde motion of
the planets in the sky.

RETROGADE LOOPS
▪ Planets usually go in same direction as
stars but at different speeds.
▪ BUT sometimes go backwards.
▪ Mars in main figure and time lapse of
several planets (in planetarium) above.
HEAVENLY SPHERES: GEOCENTRISM
▪ Earth at Center,
then
▪ Moon
▪ Mercury
▪ Venus
▪ Sun
▪ Mars
▪ Jupiter
▪ Saturn
▪ Fixed stars on
the celestial
sphere
ARISTOTLE “THE AUTHORITY”
▪ Aristotle (384--322 BCE) gave
PROOFS that the Earth was
SPHERICAL: objects all fell towards its
center yet perpendicular to ground--
sphere (but it could still be a cylinder).
▪ Noted shadows cast on moon during
eclipse were always round -- they
sometimes wouldn't be if the earth were
disk-like (or cylindrical).
▪ But he also argued that since everything
fell toward the earth, it was the heaviest
thing around, therefore it shouldn't move
-- EARTH at CENTER of the UNIVERSE
-- the GEOCENTRIC COSMOS
▪ This was certainly LOGICAL, but by no
means a PROOF (as he thought it was).
▪ His opinions on this and many other
subjects which he studied and wrote
about were considered authoritative
between 12th & 17th centuries in the
Western world.
EARTH’S ROUND SHADOW
▪ A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon
moves into and out of Earth’s shadow.
Note the curved shape of the shadow—
evidence for a spherical Earth that has
been recognized since antiquity.
• A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon
passes between Earth and the Sun,
thereby obscuring Earth's view of the
Sun, totally or partially.
ARISTARCHUS: REAL DISTANCE
MEASUREMENT
▪ Aristarchus (310--230 BCE) of Samos
applied Euclid's geometry to get the
distance to the Moon.
▪ The angular diameter is measured
directly; the linear diameter comes from
seeing how much of the Earth's shadow
the moon occupies during a lunar eclipse
(about 3/8).
▪ If the Earth's diameter is known, this
allows the Moon's to be found at about
3/8ths of Earth's.
▪ Used geometry to estimate that the Sun
was 19 times further than the Moon (19
times larger, since angular sizes are the
same)
▪ Aristarchus then could estimate that Sun
was about 7 times the diameter of the
Earth (19 x 3/8)
▪ THIS LED HIM TO PROPOSE A
HELIOCENTRIC COSMOLOGY --- with
the BIG SUN at REST, SMALL EARTH
MOVING AROUND IT.
▪ His lunar size was a little too big (The
Moon’s diameter is 3476 kilometers,
about one fourth the size of Earth.) and
his distance to the sun much too small
(400x), because of inaccurate
measurements, but the techniques were
clever and were major advances.
ANCIENT OBJECTIONS TO HELIOCENTRIC
PICTURE
▪ A moving earth should yield a powerful
wind that would blow us off.
▪ Stars didn't show measurable parallax
(Greeks couldn't think of them being SO
much further away than planets).
▪ It sure seems like we're standing still and
everything in the sky is moving, doesn't
it?
THE SIZE OF THE EARTH PTOLEMY: THE PEAK OF GREEK
▪ Eratosthenes (276--195 BCE) used ASTRONOMY
geometry and simple astronomy to make ▪ Ptolemy worked in Alexandria from 127-
an accurate measurement of the Earth's -151 CE.
radius. ▪ As a geographer, he is the first one
▪ He realized the difference in the altitude known to have used latitude and
of the noonday Sun in Syene and longitude on earth.
Alexandria equaled the latitude ▪ His astronomy book, “”-- megiste
difference between the cities. -- or “The Greatest” -- Arabic name:
▪ That gave the ratio: circumference of the Almagest.
Earth / 360° = distance / 7.2° ▪ Catalog of over 1000 stars w/
▪ Accuracy determined by distance in brightnesses, using the MAGNITUDE
stadia --- measured by foot and SYSTEM.
uncertain, but around 40,000 km, and ▪ Ptolemy's influence on astronomy was
probably good to 10% (Correct value: immense for he published a detailed
40,074 km or 24,890 miles) GEOCENTRIC MODEL.
▪ (It’s not clear how much was original to
ERATOSTHENES' MEASUREMENT him.)
7.2°/360° = Alexandria--Syene distance/Earth
circumference GREEK ASTRONOMY
Ptolemy
STELLAR CATALOGS AND PRECESSION ▪ Adapted and
▪ Hipparchus (190--125 BCE) utilized improved
▪ Aristarchus' method to get the Moon to Hipparchus'
be 59 Earth radii away (60 is geocentric model
correct!) to account for
▪ He made a better measurement of the discrepancies
length of the year. Hipparchus also saw found by improved
a NOVA and this caused him to make a observations.
CATALOG of bright stars. ▪ Produced the
▪ Comparing his locations to those Almagest, which
recorded about 170 years earlier he both summarized the state of Astronomy
found a difference of about 2 degrees, and extended it.
and concluded that there was ▪ Used eccentrics and equants to refine
PRECESSION -- his estimate of a 28,000 the model.
year period was very good.
IMPROVED GEOCENTRIC MODEL
GREEK ASTRONOMY DETAILED GEOCENTRIC MODEL
Hipparchus (150 BC) ▪ Ptolemy showed the simple system of
▪ Created the first formal observatory Hipparchus, with just a DEFERENT and
▪ Devised a system of Magnitudes EPICYCLE was inadequate.
▪ Created the first Star Catalog ▪ His model added an EQUANT -- the
▪ Determined that the Earth was motion of the center of the epicycle is
precessing uniform only if viewed from the equant.
▪ Invented trigonometry ▪ However, Ptolemy's greatest contribution
▪ Geocentric Model was the publication of his text, a
▪ Wanted perfect circles with summary of all earlier Greek
uniform circular motion, so he astronomical knowledge.
invented epicycles ▪ While complex, IT WORKED (to the
accuracy the Greeks could measure) and
 was USED for 1500 years! Certainly
OPERATIONALLY successful.
“ADVANCED”
GEOCENTRIC MODEL
NATURE OF ASTRONOMY
ARABIC ASTRONOMY AND KNOWLEDGE
TRANSMISSION
▪ Hypatia (370--415 CE) of Alexandria,
built better instruments and made more
accurate positional measurements. She
was murdered by monks who objected to
her paganism and her astrology.
▪ After the burning of the Alexandria library
and the fall of Rome, Astronomy in
Europe withered, with only parts of Greek
and Roman knowledge retained.
▪ The rise of Islam (esp. the need to know
direction to Mecca) led to large
observatories in Samarkand, Persia,
Turkey and eventually Spain with more
careful observations and improved
instruments.
▪ Big catalogs were produced: more stars,
more accurate locations Greek and
Indian knowledge (e.g., zero) were
combined and preserved in centers like
Baghdad.
GLOSSARY
▪ Apparent Magnitude: a measure of how
bright a star looks in the sky; the larger
the number, the dimmer the star appears
to us
▪ Cosmology: the study of the
organization and evolution of the
universe
▪ Epicycle: the circular orbit of a body in
the Ptolemaic system, the center of
which revolves about another circle (the
deferent)
▪ Parallax: the apparent displacement of a
nearby star that results from the motion
of Earth around the Sun
▪ Precession (of Earth): the slow, conical
motion of Earth’s axis of rotation caused
principally by the gravitational pull of the
Moon and Sun on Earth’s equatorial
bulge
▪ Retrograde Motion: the apparent
westward motion of a planet on the
celestial sphere or with respect to the
stars
▪ Astronomy is defined as the study of the
objects that lie beyond our planet earth
and the processes by which these
objects interact with one another.
▪ Science is a progress report—one that
changes constantly as new techniques
and instruments allow us to probe the
universe more deeply.
▪ The ultimate judge in science is always
what nature itself reveals based on
observations, experiments, models, and
testing.
▪ Science is not merely a body of
knowledge, but a method by which we
attempt to understand nature and how it
behaves.
▪ This method begins with many
observations over a period of time.
▪ From the trends found through
observations, scientists can model the
particular phenomena we want to
understand.
▪ Such models are always approximations
of nature, subject to further testing.
▪ When they are first proposed, new
models or ideas are sometimes called
hypotheses
▪ A hypothesis must be a proposed
explanation that can be tested.
▪ Astronomy is sometimes called an
observational science.
▪ Much of astronomy is also a historical
science—meaning that what we observe
has already happened in the universe
and we can do nothing to change it.
Numbers in astronomy
▪ Scientific notation (or sometimes
powers-of-ten notation).
▪ To use a consistent set of units—the
metric international system of units, or si
(from the french système international
d’unités).
▪ A common unit astronomers use to
describe distances in the universe is a
light-year, which is the distance light
travels during one year.
▪ Light travels at the amazing pace of 3 ×
105 kilometers per second (km/s), which
makes a light-year 9.46 × 1012
kilometers.
Figure 1: orion nebula. This beautiful cloud of
cosmic raw material (gas and dust from which
new stars and planets are being made) called the
orion nebula is about 1400 light years away.
That’s a distance of roughly 1.34 × 1016
kilometers—a pretty big number. The gas and
dust in this region are illuminated by the intense
light from a few extremely energetic adolescent
stars. (credit: nasa, esa, m. Robberto (space
telescope science institute/esa) and the hubble
space telescope orion treasury project team.
Figure 1: telescope in orbit. The hubble space
telescope, shown here in orbit around earth, is
one of many astronomical instruments in space.
(credit: modification of work by european space
agency.
A TOUR OF THE UNIVERSE
▪ A nearly spherical planet about 13,000
kilometers in diameter.
▪ The moon’s distance from earth is about 30
times earth’s diameter, or approximately
384,000 kilometers
▪ It takes about a month for the moon to revolve
around earth.
▪ The moon’s diameter is 3476 kilometers,
about one fourth the size of earth.
▪ Earth revolves around our star, the sun,
which is about 150 million kilometers away —
approximately 400 times as far away from us
as the moon.
▪ We call the average earth–sun distance an
astronomical unit (au).
▪ The diameter of the sun is about 1.5 million
kilometers; earth could fit comfortably inside
one of the minor eruptions that occurs on the
surface of our star.
▪ A planet is defined as a body of significant
size that orbits a star and does not produce
its own light. If a large body consistently
produces its own light, it is then called a star.
Figure 5. Milky way galaxy. Because we are
inside the milky way galaxy, we see its disk in
cross-section flung across the sky like a great
milky white avenue of stars with dark “rifts” of
dust. In this dramatic image, part of it is seen
above trona pinnacles in the california desert.
(credit: ian norman.
Figure 1: neighbor galaxies. This image shows
both the large magellanic cloud and the small
magellanic cloud above the telescopes of the
atacama large millimeter/su bmillimeter array
(alma) in the atacama desert of northern chile.
(credit: eso, c. Malin)
Figure 2: closest spiral galaxy. The andromeda
galaxy (m31) is a spiral- shaped collection of
stars similar to our own milky way. (credit: adam
evans)
Figure 3: fornax cluster of galaxies. In this
image, you can see part of a cluster of galaxies
located about 60 million light-years away in the
constellation of fornax. All the objects that are not
pinpoints of light in the picture are galaxies of
billions of stars. (credit: eso, j. Emerson, vista.
Acknowledgment: cambridge astronomical
survey unit)
THE SKY ABOVE
THE CELESTIAL SPHERE
▪ top of that dome, the point directly above your
head, is called the zenith, and where the
dome meets Earth is called the horizon.
▪ Circles on the Celestial Sphere. Here we
show the (imaginary) celestial sphere around
Earth, on which objects are fixed, and which
rotates around Earth on an axis. In reality, it
is Earth that turns around this axis, creating
the illusion that the sky revolves around us.
Note that Earth in this picture has been tilted
so that your location is at the top and the
North Pole is where the N is. The apparent
motion of celestial objects in the sky around
the pole is shown by the circular arrow.
CELESTIAL POLES AND CELESTIAL
EQUATOR
▪ Circling the South Celestial Pole. This long-
exposure photo shows trails left by stars as a
result of the apparent rotation of the celestial
sphere around the south celestial pole. (In
reality, it is Earth that rotates.) (Credit:
ESO/Iztok Bončina).
▪ Star Circles at Different Latitudes. The
turning of the sky looks different depending
on your latitude on Earth. (a) At the North
Pole, the stars circle the zenith and do not
rise and set. (b) At the equator, the celestial
poles are on the horizon, and the stars rise
straight up and set straight down. (c) At
intermediate latitudes, the north celestial pole
is at some position between overhead and
the horizon. Its angle above the horizon turns
out to be equal to the observer’s latitude.
Stars rise and set at an angle to the horizon.
▪ If you stood at the North Pole of Earth, you
would see the north celestial pole overhead,
at your zenith.
▪ The celestial equator, 90° from the celestial
poles, would lie along your horizon.
▪ As you watched the stars during the course
of the night, they would all circle around the
celestial pole, with none rising or setting.
▪ Only that half of the sky north of the celestial
equator is ever visible to an observer at the
North Pole. Similarly, an observer at the
South Pole would see only the southern half
of the sky.
▪ If you were at Earth’s equator, you see the
celestial equator (which, after all, is just an
“extension” of Earth’s equator) pass
overhead through your zenith.
▪ The celestial poles, being 90° from the
celestial equator, must then be at the north
and south points on your horizon.
▪ As the sky turns, all stars rise and set; they
move straight up from the east side of the
horizon and set straight down on the west
side.
▪ During a 24-hour period, all stars are above
the horizon exactly half the time.
▪ It appears above the northern horizon at an
angular height, or altitude, equal to the
observer’s latitude. In San Francisco, for
example, where the latitude is 38° N, the
north celestial pole is 38° above the northern
horizon. For an observer at 38° N latitude, the
south celestial pole is 38° below the southern
horizon and, thus, never visible. As Earth
turns, the whole sky seems to pivot about the
north celestial pole. For this observer, stars
within 38° of the North Pole can never set.
They are always above the horizon, day and
night. This part of the sky is called the north
circumpolar zone.
RISING AND SETTING OF THE SUN
▪ It changes position gradually on the celestial
sphere, moving each day about 1° to the east
relative to the stars.
▪ Very reasonably, the ancients thought this
meant the Sun was slowly moving around
Earth, taking a period of time we call 1 year
to make a full circle.
▪ Today, we know it is Earth that is going
around the Sun, but the effect is the same:
the Sun’s position in our sky changes day to
day.
▪ The path the Sun appears to take around the
celestial sphere each year is called the
ecliptic.
▪ Constellations on the Ecliptic. As Earth
revolves around the Sun, we sit on “platform
Earth” and see the Sun moving around the
sky. The circle in the sky that the Sun
appears to make around us in the course of
a year is called the ecliptic. This circle (like all
circles in the sky) goes through a set of
constellations. The ancients thought these
constellations, which the Sun (and the Moon
and planets) visited, must be special and
incorporated them into their system of
astrology. Note that at any given time of the
year, some of the constellations crossed by
the ecliptic are visible in the night sky; others
are in the day sky and are thus hidden by the
brilliance of the Sun.
▪ The ecliptic does not lie along the celestial
equator but is inclined to it at an angle of
about 23.5°.
▪ In other words, the Sun’s annual path in the
sky is not linked with Earth’s equator.
▪ This is because our planet’s axis of rotation
is tilted by about 23.5° from a vertical line
sticking out of the plane of the ecliptic.
FIXED AND WANDERING STARS
▪ During a single day, the Moon and planets all
rise and set as Earth turns, just as the Sun
and stars do.
▪ But like the Sun, they have independent
motions among the stars, superimposed on
the daily rotation of the celestial sphere.
▪ Noticing these motions, the Greeks of 2000
years ago distinguished between what they
called the fixed stars—those that maintain
fixed patterns among themselves through
many generations—and the wandering
stars, or planets.
▪ Today, we do not regard the Sun and Moon
as planets, but the ancients applied the term
to all seven (Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter,
Mars, Mercury, and Saturn) of the moving
objects in the sky.
▪ Much of ancient astronomy was devoted to
observing and predicting the motions of these
celestial wanderers.
▪ They even dedicated a unit of time, the week,
to the seven objects that move on their own;
that’s why there are 7 days in a week.
▪ The Moon, being Earth’s nearest celestial
neighbor, has the fastest apparent motion; it
completes a trip around the sky in about 1
month (or moonth).
▪ To do this, the Moon moves about 12° , or 24
times its own apparent width on the sky, each
day.
▪ The individual paths of the Moon and planets
in the sky all lie close to the ecliptic, although
not exactly on it.
▪ This is because the paths of the planets
about the Sun, and of the Moon about Earth,
are all in nearly the same plane, as if they
were circles on a huge sheet of paper.
▪ The planets, the Sun, and the Moon are thus
always found in the sky within a narrow 18-
degree-wide belt, centered on the ecliptic,
called the zodiac.
CONSTELLATIONS
▪ Today, the term constellation means one of
88 sectors into which we divide the sky, much
as the United States is divided into 50 states.
▪ The modern boundaries between the
constellations are imaginary lines in the sky
running north–south and east–west, so that
each point in the sky falls in a specific
constellation, although, like the states, not all
constellations are the same size.
▪ Orion. (a) The winter constellation of Orion,
the hunter, is surrounded by neighboring
constellations, as illustrated in the
seventeenth-century atlas by Hevelius. (b) A
photograph shows the Orion region in the
sky. Note the three blue stars that make up
the belt of the hunter. The bright red star
above the belt denotes his armpit and is
called Betelgeuse (pronounced “Beetel-
juice”). The bright blue star below the belt is
his foot and is called Rigel.
TERMINOLOGIES
▪ celestial equator: a great circle on the
celestial sphere 90° from the celestial poles;
where the celestial sphere intersects the
plane of Earth’s equator
▪ celestial poles: points about which the
celestial sphere appears to rotate;
intersections of the celestial sphere with
Earth’s polar axis
▪ celestial sphere: the apparent sphere of the
sky; a sphere of large radius centered on the
observer; directions of objects in the sky can
be denoted by their position on the celestial
sphere
▪ circumpolar zone: those portions of the
celestial sphere near the celestial poles that
are either always above or always below the
horizon
▪ ecliptic: the apparent annual path of the Sun
on the celestial sphere
▪ geocentric: centered on Earth
▪ horizon (astronomical): a great circle on the
celestial sphere 90° from the zenith; more
popularly, the circle around us where the
dome of the sky meets Earth
▪ planet: today, any of the larger objects
revolving about the Sun or any similar objects
that orbit other stars; in ancient times, any
object that moved regularly among the fixed
stars
▪ year: the period of revolution of Earth around
the Sun
▪ zenith: the point on the celestial sphere
opposite the direction of gravity; point directly
above the observer
▪ zodiac: a belt around the sky about 18° wide
centered on the ecliptic
THE BIRTH OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
Ancient Greeks and Astronomy
▪ Astronomy is the science that studies the
universe.
▪ The first accurate European astronomers
were the ancient Greeks
. Earth.
▪ Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.E.) concluded that
the earth was round because it always cast a
curved shadow when it passes between the
sun and the moon.
▪ Aristotle’s belief that the Earth is round was
abandoned by the Middle Ages.
Aristotle’s Geocentric Universe
▪ Eratosthenes (276 – 194 B.C.E.), an ancient
Greek mathematician, calculated that the
earth’s circumfer-ence is 39,000 kilometers -
very close to our own modern measure-ment
of 40,075 km.
▪ The Greeks thought that the Earth was a
sphere that stayed motionless at the center
of the universe. The other planets and stars
revolved around the Earth on their own
hollow spheres.
THE GEOCENTRIC MODEL
▪ In this model, the moon, sun, and the known
planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn – orbit earth.
▪ Every other body in space circled this system
on their own transparent, hollow sphere.
▪ This was called the celestial sphere.
THE HELIOCENTRIC MODEL
▪ Aristarchus (312-230 B.C.E.) was the first
Greek to believe in a sun-centered, or
heliocentric, universe.
▪ In the heliocentric model, Earth and other
planets orbit the sun.
THE PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM
▪ Claudius Ptolemy (c. 90 – 168 C.E.) is our
main source for what the ancient Greeks
knew about astronomy.
▪ He also attempted to explain retrograde
motion, or how each planet appears
sometimes to stop in the night sky, reverse
direction, and then resume eastward motion.
▪ Ptolemy was wrong – the planets do not orbit
▪ Yet although he used the geocentric model,
he did try explain the planets’ apparent
motions.
The Birth of Modern Astronomy
▪ The first great astronomer after the Greeks
was NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1473-1543)
of Poland.
▪ Copernicus proposed the heliocentric model
of the solar system: Earth is a planet and all
planets of the solar system revolved around
the sun at its center.
Copernicus’ Axioms
▪ There is no one center in the universe.
▪ The Earth’s center is not the center of the
universe.
▪ The center of the universe is near the Sun.
▪ The distance from the Earth to the Sun is
imperceptible compared with the distance to
the stars.
▪ The rotation of the Earth accounts for the
apparent daily rotation of the stars.
▪ The apparent annual cycle of movements of
the Sun is caused by the Earth revolving
around it.
▪ The apparent retrograde motion of the
planets is caused by the motion of the Earth
from which one observes.
COPERNICUS
▪ Since he knew that his book De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On
the Revolution of Celestial Orbs) would be
considered heresy, Copernicus had it
published by a friend after his death.
▪ He also pointed out gaps in Ptolemy’s model.
▪ Despite the improvement in the model of the
universe, he still believed in the idea of
perfect circular orbits.
▪ This made his predictions no more accurate
than Ptolemy’s and led to doubts about his
theory.
▪ Although the Church condemned the book,
the damage was already done and the world
 was opened to new era of thinking about the
world.
▪ He argued that the apparent motion of the
Sun about Earth during the course of a year
could be represented equally well by a
motion of Earth about the Sun.
▪ He also reasoned that the apparent rotation
of the celestial sphere could be explained by
assuming that Earth rotates while the
celestial sphere is stationary.
▪ He answered that if such motion would tear
Earth apart, the still faster motion of the much
larger celestial sphere (geocentric
hypothesis) would be even more devastating.
Objections to Heliocentrism
▪ If Earth were moving, we would all sense or
feel this motion.
▪ Solid objects would be ripped from the
surface.
▪ A ball dropped from a great height would not
strike the ground directly below it.
CHRISTOPHER CLAVIUS
▪ 1538 to 1612
▪ Astronomer for Pope Leo X. Clavius
determined that the Julian Calendar was
adding 3 days too many over a period of 385
years.
▪ This caused the date of Easter to slip against
the calendar.
▪ That’s a bad thing!!
Clavius made (2) proposals:
▪ The day following Wednesday October
4th, 1582, should be called Thursday
October 15th 1582
▪ Leap years occur in all years divisible by
4 but in years ending in “00” must be
divisible by 400 to called a leap year.
▪ 1600, 2000 yes
▪ 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100 No
▪ Pope Gregory X is credited for instituting
the new Calendar and today it is known
as the Gregorian Calendar.
TYCHO BRAHE
▪ 1546 to 1601
▪ Tycho studied medicine, law, mathematics,
astronomy, and politics.
▪ A supernova seen in 1572 turned his
attentions toward astronomy permanently.
▪ He constructed observatories at Hven
(Sweden)
▪ After closing Hven due to the political
environment, he became the Imperial
Mathematician to the Holy Roman Empire in
Prague.
▪ Tycho was a great maker of astronomical
instruments.
▪ He was able to measure the positions of
hundreds of stars to within 4’ (feet).
▪ Because he found great errors in the
Alphonsine tables he decided to create his
own Rudolphine Tables
▪ He measured the positions of the planets to
within 2’.
▪ Tycho had devised his own unique model of
the universe where the moon and the sun
revolved around the Earth but all of the
planets went around the Sun.
▪ He hoped to use his data tables to prove his
hypothesis.
▪ Kepler applied to work at Tycho’s
observatory.
▪ Tycho recognized his talents quickly and set
him to work on the Rudolphine tables with the
purpose of finding the laws of planetary
motion.
▪ Unfortunately, Tycho died less than two
years later, before Kepler worked out his first
two laws. (1601)
GIORDONO BRUNO
▪ 1548 to 1600
▪ He was an ordained priest by the Catholic
Church.
▪ He believed in many heretical ideas.
▪ Here are just a few:
▪ He believed that there was no center
to our universe
▪ the universe was infinite.
▪ He believed other stars were suns
▪ He believed in atoms
▪ He believed in atoms
▪ Because of his views, he was persecuted by
many different churches and peoples.
▪ Ultimately he went back to face trial in the
Vatican.
▪ The trial lasted 7 years before he was found
guilty and sentenced
▪ Giordano Bruno was publicly burned at the
stake on Feb 17th, 1600.
▪ This was the year of the Jubilee celebration.
▪ Bruno was easily 200 years ahead of his
time.
Three Laws of Planetary Motion.
▪ JOHANNES KEPLER (1571-1630) was
Brahe’s assistant, and later the first important
modern astronomer.
▪ Kepler applied mathematics to Brahe’s
findings and discovered Three Laws of
Planetary Motion
▪ First Law: The path of each planet around
the sun is an ellipse, with the sun at one
focus.
▪ Second Law: Kepler determined that a
planet travels most rapidly when it comes
closest to the Sun and moves slowest when
farthest away.
▪ Third Law: Keppler’s third law gives the
precise relation between the distance of a
planet from the Sun and how fast it completes
an orbit, using Astronomical Units (AU).
▪ One AU equals 150 million km, the
average distance of the Earth from
the Sun.
How is an ellipse different from a circle?
▪ A circle is a closed curved shape that is flat.
In a circle, all points on the circle are equally
distant from the center of the circle.
▪ An ellipse is also a closed curved shape that
is flat.
▪ Instead of having all points the same distance
from the center (like a circle), an ellipse has
two focus points.
▪ GALILEO GALILEI
▪ 1564 to 1642
▪ Very talented mathematician
▪ Excellent experimenter and astronomer
▪ Originally trained in medicine but never
completed the degree.
▪ Strong believer in the Copernican system.
▪ Understood that an object that is dropped will
fall straight down, not left behind because of
the Earth’s rotation!
▪ Used a telescope to look at the heavens and
made improvements in quality and
magnification.
▪ Galileo wrote a book in Italian about the new
evidence for the Copernican system.
▪ He ultimately faced the Inquisition and was
force to renounce the Copernican system.
▪ He was sentenced to house arrest for the last
ten years of his life.
▪ During that time he wrote his most complete
argument for the Copernican system.
▪ Galileo not only provided
evidence that proved the
heliocentric model accurate, but he
also invented pendulum clocks and
the modern thermometer.
▪ He also created one of the first
telescopes, without anything
but a written description to
guide him. He even ground
glass for its lenses himself.
▪ Galileo used his telescope to view the
universe in a new way. He made important
discoveries that supported Copernicus’
heliocentric model of the universe.
▪ The discovery of the largest four
moons of Jupiter.
▪ (He also discovered Saturn’s rings.)
▪ Planets are NOT pinpoints of light.
▪ They are actually spheres, like Earth.
▪ Venus has phases, just like the
moon.
▪ Therefore, Venus circles the
Sun.
▪ The moon’s surface is not smooth.
▪ (Galileo thought the moon’s
dark areas might be seas.)
▪ The sun has sunspots, or dark
regions
▪ Galileo tracked the
movement of these sunspots
and estimated the rotational
period of the sun.
ISAAC NEWTON
▪ 1643 to 1727
▪ Born and raised on a farm, Newton was
relatively useless as a farm hand.
▪ He showed great promise in school and later
attended Trinity college in London where he
graduated with a degree in math in 1665.
▪ The college was shut down for two years due
to the plague so Newton returned home to the
farm.
▪ Here he formulated some of his greatest
achievements.
▪ These include:
▪ The Law of Universal Gravitation
▪ Invention of Calculus
▪ 3 Laws of Motion
▪ Optical advancements
▪ Nature of light and the spectrum
▪ 3 LAWS OF MOTION
▪ All objects resist changes in their state of
motion unless acted on by an outside net
force (law of inertia)
▪ If an object is acted on by an outside net
force, it will accelerate according to the
following formula: a=F/m
▪ For every force there exists an equal and
opposite force often called action
reaction law.
▪ Law of Universal Gravitation
▪ Newton’s great revelation was that the
same force that pulls an apple toward the
surface of the Earth is the same force
that holds the moon in orbit.
Universal Gravitation
▪ Every body in the universe attracts every
other body with a force directionally
proportional to their masses.
▪ Gravitational forces decrease with
distance.
▪ The greater the mass of the object, the
greater its gravitational force.
𝑮𝑴𝟏𝑴𝟐
F=
𝒓𝟐
▪ Newton imagined a cannon fired from
high mountain.
▪ With enough speed the falling cannon
ball would match the curve of the earth
and remain at the same height above the
surface, returning to the cannon from the
other side.
▪ After returning to Cambridge University
as a professor, He became the Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics. 1669.
▪ This position is held by Steven Hawking
today.
▪ Newton was later hired as the head of the
British mint.
▪ He was in charge of finding and
prosecuting counterfeiters.
▪ He often went undercover and ultimately
convicted more than 10 counter-feiters
who were executed.
▪ Newton conducted hundreds of
experiments on light and discovered the
origin of the spectrum created by prisms.
▪ Newton also invented the reflecting
telescope.
▪ Much of Newton’s life was filled with
controversy.
▪ He fought with many other scientists and
mathematicians over who was the
discoverer of various ideas.
▪ These included Leibnitz (calculus) and
Hooke (optics) and several others.
▪ Newton is often credited as the greatest
scientist of all time.
▪ He impacted more areas of science and
even invented an entire branch of
mathematics called calculus.
▪ He was knighted among his many honors
and served as president of the Royal
Society (a scientific watchdog)
▪ He was ill for the last two years of his life
and was buried in Westminster Abbey
after his death.
Famous Quotes
▪ “If I have seen further it is by standing on
the shoulders of giants”
▪ “I do not know what I may appear to the
world, but to myself I seem to have been
only like a boy playing on the sea-shore,
and diverting myself in now and then
finding a smoother pebble or a prettier
shell than ordinary, whilst the great
ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before
me”