Ancient Greek Astronomy

Astronomy is the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. During the Middle Ages, a Roman astronomer named Ptolemy came up with a theory that everything in the solar system revolved around the Earth (Document C). During the Renaissance, a Polish astronomer named Copernicus relied mostly on mathematics, he developed a very different understanding of the universe (Document C). He came up with a theory that everything in the universe revolves around the sun. The ideas of Copernicus were upsetting to the Catholic Church. They were upsetting because they thought the Earth was the biggest planet and that everything should revolve around it. You can see that man's view was changing through astronomy because the way that people saw the universe was

Among these people were Copernicus who believed the sun was at the center of the world and the earth, stars and planets revolved around it. Danish astronomer Brahe helped contribute to this idea by contributing a large mass of data about the universe that he was able to discover. His student Kepler kept his ideas going, as he formulated many laws of planetary motion. He said the orbits around the sun were elliptical, planets don’t move in a uniform speed and the time a planet completes its orbit is related to its distance from the sun. Meanwhile, Florentine Galileo decided to use experiments to find out what happened and not what should happen, and discovered that a uniform force makes a uniform acceleration as well as inertia laws, that an object will be in motion forever unless stopped by another force.

Astronomy was a highly debated topic between scientists and the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and there was a place for all of the gods/zodiacs in it. An astronomer from the Middle Ages, Ptolemy, created the drawing of the universe which depicted the Earth in the very center of the universe, or geocentric. The geocentric universe, also contained an outer name in latin translating directly to “The Empire of Heaven and the Home of God and the Elect( document C )”. Contrary to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church another astronomer from The Renaissance created a sun centered universe or heliocentric. This astronomers name was Copernicus, he created his universe based on observation of the movement of the planets and mathematics. During the Middle Ages it was strongly believed that the universe was geocentric, but now astronomers like Copernicus have disproved these beliefs with concrete

The Ptolemaic view of the motions of the stars was earth centric, or geocentric. Ptolemy believed that all the planets revolved around the earth, the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus on the other hand held the belief that the universe revolved around the sun, or that the universe was heliocentric. Copernicus also only considered there to only be six planets, as he didn’t count the moon like Ptolemy. Kepler held similar beliefs t Copernicus, and believed that the reason why a god-created universe only had six planets instead of seven was based on Plato’s idea of the five Platonic Solids. That just like there are only five forms of matter and five platonic solids, the universe must have been intelligently created in a similar

In concordance with Christian doctrines, this system implies that heaven and the throne of God lie beyond the tenth sphere. On the other hand, during the first half of the 16th century, Polish cleric Copernicus developed an astronomical model which positions the motionless Sun at the center of the universe, with the Earth, the moon, and six other planets revolving at a constant speed around it. He argues that all stars were at rest and that their nightly movements are simply indications of the earth’s rotation. However, members of the Church, especially Protestants, who interpreted the Bible literally, refused to grant Copernicus credit for his theory. Nevertheless, once released among the population, the Copernican theory raised support from various scholars, a few of whom, such as Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo, went on to dedicate their career to solidify its legitimacy. With their use of mathematical reasoning, instead of antic philosophy, the Copernican theory finally became justified among the population. Pertaining to its influence among laypeople, the Copernican theory raised various questions against the

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who lived between 1671-1630. Kepler was a Copernican and initially believed that planets should follow perfectly circular orbits (“Johan Kepler” 1). During this time period, Ptolemy’s geocentric theory of the solar system was accepted. Ptolemy’s theory stated that Earth is at the center of the universe and stationary; closest to Earth is the Moon, and beyond it, expanding towards the outside, are Mercury, Venus, and the Sun in a straight line, followed by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the “fixed stars”. The Ptolemaic system explained the numerous observed motions of the planets as having small spherical orbits called epicycles (“Astronomy” 2). Kepler is best known for introducing three

Thought history scientists’ finding have been ignored, only to be discovered that their information was beneficial. In the 1600s and 1700s, many astronomers and mechanics were focused on finding a way to find the longitude of a ship’s position at sea. John Harrison, a self-taught carpenter and clockmaker was able to create a solution, but no one with enough power to enforce his studies would listen to his ideas. Similar to this, when Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the earth revolved around the sun, no one believed him because the belief at the time was that the earth was the center of the universe. Despite no one appreciating what the two had discovered, several years after they had died, their theories surfaced again and people began

Its name means “the twins” in Latin. Gemini is one of the zodiac constellations, first cataloged by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century.The constellation represents the twins Castor and Pollux (Poly deuces), also known as the Dioscuri in ancient times, in Greek mythology.

The characteristics of Uranus are vastly different from the ones on Earth, as Uranus cannot support any form of life. There is much to Uranus that makes it impossible for us to live on. Things such as temperature, the atmosphere, and it’s distance from the sun. The atmosphere has gases that make it impossible for us to live on. Since there are so many gasses that we cannot tolerate, there is a minimal amount of oxygen on Uranus. In fact, the whole planet is a gas giant, which means it is completely made of gas. Therefore, no life form would be able to live on Uranus, due to the fact that you cannot walk on Uranus.

Ptolemy, a Roman astronomer came up with the theory that the universe revolved around Earth and all the creatures inhabiting it (Doc. C). This theory, The Geocentric Universe of Ptolemy, was adjusted by most of the people during The Middle Ages. However, much later on, Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, disagreed with Ptolemy’s theory. With his use of math and reason, he came up with a new theory called The Heliocentric Universe of Copernicus (Doc. C). He said that the universe & Earth itself revolves around the sun. The Church denied this theory because they did not want to be proven wrong. If the Church was wrong about this part of the universe, this would then cause man to wonder what else they could be wrong about, or even lied to them about. This new theory taught men to think for themselves and not to rely on the Church for

Greek mythology was very important in many cultures throughout the world and was utilized to clarify the earth and its circumstances in which mankind lived, the normal wonders they identified and how constellations explained the why the movement of the stars and sky were important in the lives of the Greeks. Greek mythology contained information about the livelihood of these gods and goddesses, humankind after death and simply how to live a joyous life. The geography of Greece also shaped Greek mythology due to it being a peninsula and Ancient Greeks used mythology to find out certain characteristics within their lives and they were successful in teaching moral lessons and demonstrating the type of world they were living in at the time.

Like men in other civilizations, ancient Greeks also looked into the night sky and saw those thousands of twinkling lights. They could see that most of the tiny lights are fixed relative to each other, but a few wonder (move) about. They called those wandering lights "Planets" (in Greek, planet means wanderer); the rest fixed tiny lights were called, “Stars”. With their naked eyes, they could see only five planets. The English names by which we now know these five planets; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were derived from the names of mythological Roman Gods. In Roman mythology; Mercurius, son of Jupiter, is the patron god of financial gain and supposed to move fast. Planet mercury was named after him. The name was appropriate

Although I wouldn’t prefer to live in the Greek time I do believe that it is the most interesting because of the intriguing culture, philosophy, plays and literature, and structures. The amount of progress in philosophy and culture makes the Greek era very recognizable and incredibly important for future of the world. Many things can call their start from the Greeks too, such as drama, comedy, modern philosophy, democracy, and the beginning of modern science. While the extravagant temples only exaggerate the magnificent and sturdy buildings the Greeks built and filled with incredible sculptures displaying arete at its finest. These things make the Greeks the most interesting culture for myself to learn and study about.

----------------------------------------. Whether astrology is accepted as true has yet to be determined. For centuries, astrology has been used to provide a deeper understanding of nature and identity. Astrology originates from Babylon- developing from the belief that the heavens ruled man’s fate.

Since the first Egyptian farmers discovered the annual reappearance of Sirius just before dawn a few days before the yearly rising of the Nile, ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean have sought to explain the movements of the heavens as a sort of calendar to help guide them conduct earthly activities. Counting phases of the moon or observing the annual variations of day length could, after many years' collection of observations, serve as vital indicators for planting and harvesting times, safe or stormy season for sailing, or time to bring the flocks from winter to summer pastures. With our millennia of such observation behind us, we sometimes forget that seeing and recording anything less obvious than