THE ANCIENTS

• Early Babylonians Egyptians and Chinese made important astronomical observations

• The five closest planets were observed and novas and comets were recorded
• Comets were blamed for disasters and were seen as portents of doom
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ASTRONOMY –
GREECE 600 BC TO 150 AD
• The basics of geometry and trigonometry helped them explain the
motions of planets, sun and moon
• However, they erroneously decided that everything in the
“heavens” revolved around the earth
• That is what appears to happen, but this apparent motion is really
due to the earth’s rotation
• They decided that the Earth couldn’t be rotating because we feel
no motion
EARLY ASTRONOMERS BELIEVED THAT
THE EARTH IS THE CENTER OF THE
UNIVERSE.
 ANAXAGORAS

Provided an acceptable explanation for the

phases of the moon.
According to him, the moon shone only by
reflected sunlight.
Since it is a sphere, only half of it is illuminated
at a time.
 EUDOXUS

• Proposed the system of fixed spheres.

• According to him, the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, and the stars revolved around
motionless.
• With the use of his computations, he was able to explain
well the motions of the sun, moon and planets however
he was not able to accurately predict the motion and
location of the many heavenly bodies as they moved
around the earth.
 ARISTOTLE

• adopted Eudoxus’ model of the solar

system. He also believed in the earth-
centered universe.
• For him, the earth is spherical in shape.
SOME OF THE
AristotleFAMOUS GREEKS

• Aristotle knew that the

earth was a sphere
because during an eclipse
the earth’s shadow was a
circle. However Aristotle
believed in an earth
centered(Geocentric)
solar system
Aristarchus
 ARISTARCHUS

• was the first Greek to profess his

heliocentric View of the universe. 
SOME OF THE • Aristarchus
AristotleFAMOUS GREEKSwas the first to
propose a sun-centered solar
system(Heliocentric), but no
one agreed with him.
Aristotle’s influence was too
strong and lasted over a
thousand years.
• Aristarchus also tried to
calculate sizes of the moon
and sun and distances to
them. The method was good,
but his measurements were
Aristarchus
off, so his answers were
wrong.
 ERATOSTHENES

• was successful in determining the size of

the Earth.
• He did this by applying geometric principles.
• He observed the angles of the noonday sun in two Egyptian cities
that were almost each other.
• This would make his calculations equal to 39 400 km quite close to
the modern value of earth's circumference which is 40 075km.
 EARTH CIRCUMFERENCE MATH
• Two cities have incoming light at two different angles
• We can measure the distance between the two cities
• Using basic geometry (Can geometry students understand the method?) he
found the angle difference between two cities
• Then Circumference/distance = 360/angle difference
• (Why 360? Because there are 360 degrees in a circle)
Sample problem: The difference in latitude
between city A and city B is 30 degrees.
The distance between cities A and B is 2000 km.
What is the circumference of the planet?
Did you get 24,000 km?
Solution:
Circumference = 2000 * (360/30)

WORKSHEET
THE PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM
• Ptolemy had
introduced the
concept of epicycles
• As a planet orbited
the earth, it moved in
small circles

• These were called

epicycles Li
 HIPPARCHUS

• Considered as the greatest of the early

Greek astronomers.
• catalogued the position of 850 stars. He
grouped and ranked them according to 
brightness.
CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY

• He believed that the earth was the center of the

universe.
 MODERN
ASTRONOMY
 NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

• considered the sun as the stationary center of

the universe.
• He classified Earth as a planet just like Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. 
COPERNICAN MODEL
• His revolutionary book was
published as Copernicus
was dying.
• He was afraid to publish it
because the Catholic
Church, very powerful at
the time, firmly believed in
the geocentric model,
which put man in the
center of the known
universe. His theory was a threat to church teachings and you were in
trouble with the church if you were accused of being a
“Copernican.”
 TYCHO BRAHE

• believed that only the sun and the moon revolved

around the Earth; the other planets revolved
around the sun, which itself revolved around the
earth. 
 JOHANNES KEPLER

• was the able assistant of Tycho Brahe. Using

his mentor’s data, he formulated the three
laws of planetary motion: the Law of Ellipses,
Law of Equal Areas, and the Law
of Harmonies. 
 GALILEO GALILEI

• was the greatest Italian scientist of the

Renaissance.
 GALILEO’S ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS
• Galileo may have been the 1st scientist to use the newly
developed telescope to make astronomical observations. These
included:
• The discovery of the four largest moons of Jupiter
• The discovery that planets are not just “points of light.”
• The discovery that the moon is not a smooth ball, as proposed
by others.
• The discovery of sunspots (which probably caused him
blindness later) and observations of them to estimate the
rotational period of the sun
GALILEO’S OBSERVATIONS

• And the discovery of the phases of

Venus, which showed that Venus must
orbit the sun, not the earth

• This was evidence supporting the

heliocentric model of the solar system
(study the sketch here.)
 ISAAC NEWTON

• Developed and formalized Galileo’s concept of

inertia. He conceptualized the force of gravity
and he was able to provide an explanation for the
elliptical orbits discovered by Johannes Kepler.