History of Astronomy

DefinitionAstronomy is a natural science which is the study of celestial objects (such as stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets and nebulae), the physics, chemistry, and evolution of such objects, and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth, including supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic microwave background radiation

Early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, The Celts, and Maya.

The Great Pyramids at Giza

The Mayan Civilization

Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World

Early cultures identified celestial objects with gods and spirits.

first "professional" astronomers were priests

Ancient structures with possibly astronomical alignments (such as Stonehenge) probably fulfilled both astronomical and religious functions.

Earliest documentation of a heavenly phenomenon –

Babylonian observation of the Halley’s Comet

In China, The Star Map

Mesoamerica – Chichen Iza Mexico

Maya astronomical codices include detailed tables for calculating phases of the Moon, the recurrence of eclipses, and the appearance and disappearance of Venus as morning and evening star

The Maya based their calendrics in the carefully calculated cycles of the Pleiades, the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and also they had a precise description of the eclipses as depicted in the Dresden Codex, as well as the ecliptic or zodiac, and the Milky Way was crucial in their Cosmology.

Medieval EuropePre-medieval - Claudius Ptolemy “Almagest”

The Geocentric Theory

• Heliocentric Theory proponents

Tyco Brahe, Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler,

Galileo Gallilei – Italian Scientist, scholar of the Medici

Family

The Telescope

Galileo’s invention of the

telescope

Galileo’s sketches of the moon

Modern Astronomy

Newton publishes his theory of universal gravitation in the work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. This is seen to be the start of Modern Astronomy. (1687)

Halley correctly predicts the return of a comet (Halley's comet) in 1758

The discovery of Uranus by Herschel (1781)

Messier discovers galaxies, nebula and star clusters while looking for comets. He compiles a catalogue of these objects (Messier objects). (1781)

Piazzi discovers first asteroid, Ceres. (1801)

Discovery of the 'Doppler Effect' by Austrian physicist and mathematician, Christian Doppler. (1842)

Samuel Heinrich Schwabe describes the sunspot cycle. (1843)

Johann Galle observes and discovers Neptune. His observations were prompted by mathematical calculations by French astronomer Joseph Leverrier and English astronomer John Couch Adams. (1846)

Konstantin Tsiolkovskii – Father of Astraunatics (1857)

Many of his proposals concerning rocketry were later put into use including: use of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as rocket fuel and multi-stage rocket design for achieving Earth orbit or interplanetary flight

The beginning of spectral analysis of stars by Sir William Huggins (1860)

Jansen and Lockyer observe solar prominences. (1868)

Henry Draper takes a photograph of the stellar spectrum of Vega. This is the first of its kind. (1872)

Asaph Hall discovers Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars. (1877)

Schiaparelli observes the canals on Mars. (1877)

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter becomes prominent. (1878)

Mount Wilson Observatory was established for study of the Sun. (1905)

Albert Einstein introduces special Theory of Relativity in paper Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. (1905)

Hertzsprung describes giant and dwarf stars. (1908)

Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovers Cepheid variables, (1908)

Hubble shows that galaxies exist outside the Milky Way galaxy. (1923)

Robert Goddard uses first liquid rocket fuel. (1926)

Oort shows the center of the Milky Way galaxy is in Sagittarius. (1927)

Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. (1930)

Karl Jansky discovers cosmic radio waves. (1931)

First radio telescope built by Grote Reber. (1937)

Sputnik, first object to orbit the Earth, launched by the Russians. (1957)

Explorer 1 launched. This was the first U.S. satellite to orbit the Earth. (1957)

The founding of archeoastronomy (1958)

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space (1961)

John Glenn becomes first American man to orbit Earth. (1962)

Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walk on the Moon as part of Apollo 11 mission. (1965)

The Russian Venera 7 becomes first to land softly on the surface of Venus. (1970)

The U.S. launches Pioneer 10, the first satellite destined for Jupiter.(1972)

An example of an Observatory (Australia)

Radio Astronomy

Modern Telescope

The Hubble Telescope placed into orbit by a

space shuttle

The Apollo Command service

module

Apollo 11 mission

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