The history of astronomy in more detail in
On the history of astronomy and turnover theories there is much to say. One of first things safe is that astronomy was born and has been studied for some time, as one with astrology. Then the two disciplines are divided roughly in 1400, when Copernicus began with a study of more "scientific" astronomy.
The ancients were great and good observers. Think of the Stone Age monuments of Stonehenge 2800 BC, think of the provision of cromlech and monoliths of Brittany, think of the medicine wheels of the Indians ... all designed and manufactured to a profound astronomical knowledge, that due to the lack of tools, it was based on ' observation. Try it, night after night fast and astronomy) to put out, nose, and try to distinguish the planets from the stars, and try to follow their movement and drawn on paper ... It is not easy, is it?
Well, the first who have completed this task successfully and were the Sumerians, who have passed on their knowledge in the field on clay tablets.
The best, however, to provide theoretical explanations for the movements of stars and planets were the Greeks. In the sixth century BC, the Pythagorean school was formed, whose members believed that the world was governed by two main objections: the finite (ie, the well, the cosmos, the order) and the infinite (that is, evil, chaos, disorder). Their mathematical studies have a magical and symbolic value: Pythagoras is convinced that behind all things are harmonious the precise numerical ratios: the earth, then, must be spherical motion of the stars must follow the laws of numbers, the orbits of the bodies are be circular and should be ten, a perfect number. And 'This is a vision that will influence for centuries the way of looking at the sky.
Between 300 and 200 BC we find the great "spin doctors" Aristotle, which is this idea of perfection on earth, and also explains why things have to be necessarily so: the Earth is the place of the lower and two (water and fire) of the five elements, which by their nature converge to the low, air and fire but converge towards each other, which is their natural place. Ether, the fifth element, as the heavenly bodies that move in a circle carried by 55 concentric spheres made of a special crystal, incorruptible and eternal. Around the earth, still, rotate the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the last sphere is that of the fixed stars and is kept in motion by the love of "divine unmoved mover," and this is the ball down the alternation of night and day and forward movement in all other spheres.
The first theory but also composed of real measurements is that of Aristarchus Samos, whose beliefs are not only logical and correct, but it is the first to use mathematical tools in the investigation of the cosmos. His theory is the first rudimentary heliocentric theory, which includes the Sun at the center of the sphere of the stars and still, and that the Earth revolves around him. To counter this
heliocentric theory was Ptolemy, with his theory of geocentric (Earth rest in the center with the sun and other celestial spheres that rotate around), but for a true revolution in the field can expect a lot, until 1400 when they started the first voyages of exploration and overcoming of the Pillars of Hercules. Thus, the Polish Copernicus (whose cultural foundations are based on previous studies, however, Greek, "Old" more than a thousand years) stated that the Earth was just one of many planets revolving around the sun, and doing calculations, he realized that the geocentric Ptolemaic system was something not quite right. But because of the great authorities of the Greek texts and studies, was limited to "modify" the Ptolemaic theory, arguing that the sun was the center of the orbits of the planets, but did not modify the design of concentric celestial spheres that rotate one within the other .
Even Kepler studied the ancient texts, and is convinced that God in creating the world has followed precise mathematical and geometrical laws, at a certain point becomes a friend of Tycho Brahe, who at death's passes all the data he had collected in a lifetime of observation of the sky. These data were valuable as precise (Brahe was obsessed with precision), and Kepler realizes that it is mathematically impossible that the sun is the center of the solar system, and are convinced that the sun appears to be spreading some mysterious force that acts on all the planets: comes forward the hypothesis that the orbits of the planets are elliptical and not circular, but it is such repulsion towards anything that moves away from perfection (circle vs. ellipse, in this case) that Kepler believed to have to redo and re-check all its calculations. The result obtained, however, is always the same, and eventually became convinced of the correctness of its results, and will succeed to discover the three laws that govern the movement of celestial bodies.
The first step was made, and continue with the discoveries by Galileo Galilei and his telescope. Galileo's mistake, however, was to pose Read more from best thinking of Aristotle and all the great Greek, and this attitude led him to be condemned by the pope to a kind of "house arrest" and was obliged to ask publicly apologized, saying, "I curse and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies." Galileo, however, he realized that it was worth bowing his head, if he wished to continue his studies.
year of Galileo's death coincided with the birth of Newton, which will revolutionize further the field of physics by his discovery of gravity, a force that is possessed by all bodies, and which is proportional to body mass and its density, and explained that the "forces at a distance" exercised by the sun and planets.
Then proceed their studies from the chemical point of view, due to Kirchhoff, Angstrom and Foucault, while in the physical study Doppler and Fizeau. Thanks to all of them face the sky changes once again: now even the "fixed" stars are moving!
And so we arrive at 1900, the century in which we have to thank Maxwell (electromagnetism for work), and Hertzsprung Russell (HR diagram for dividing the second star the spectral class to which they belong, that takes into account their color and their absolute magnitudes), Einstein (who worked on the photoelectric effect in physics, but whose deductions are also applicable in astronomy), Borh, Rutherford ...
are opened as new fields, like the radio-astronomy and of the star-sailing, there are new items that people in heaven, they build satellites and telescopes will make them gravitate to the earth ... But it is still far from understand how it all started and how it will all end, which is why studies continue and will continue.
The next episode will be more technical, with the sky coordinates, motions of the earth (millenarian or otherwise), and constellations)
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