History of astronomy

The night sky has been a place with full of curiosities since ancient times. As the oldest science, astronomy has many historical references. So let's investigate the history of astronomy through this blog.

Babylonian Civilization 

Akkadians who lived in Babylonia used to observe planetary motions and prepare reports called "almanacs" 4500 years ago. 

Egyptian Civilization 

The Nile River is the key to the civilization of Egypt. 
When the Nile River overflowed, they noticed that a bright star called 'Sirius' was at the bottom of the night sky. 
After that, they used to decide the seasons that were good to harvest according to the observations they made while observing the night sky.
When we talk about the civilization of Egypt, we can't forget about the "great pyramid" that was built by the ancient pharaohs around 2650 B.C. and it is exactly oriented along the north-south axis.
The Egyptians identified Orion because the two air shafts' proof shows that the brightest star in Orion's belt is intimately connected to the tomb of the pharaoh's .

Mayans' Astronomy

Mayans have usually welcomed the beginning of a year on July 26th. So they have prepared a calendar according to their observations. They built a famous observatory called "Chichen Itza". So the Mayans' astronomy provided records of planetary observations, calendars, and predictions of solar eclipses. Also, they have observed the motion of the Venus. The Mayans developed the science of astronomy.

Indians' and Sri Lankans' Astronomy

Astrolabe and the celestial globe are some of the inventions of the Indians. Sri Lanka also possessed crystal technology and aircraft technology. At Isurumuni, there's an engraving on a rock called
"Star Gate", which is considered to be an ancient center of universal communication.

Chinese Astronomy

They observed the Crab Nebula supernova in 1054. It was the first supernova observation recorded in history, and the Chinese are also the inventors of the modern calendar. There was a Chinese scientist called "Zhang Heng" who created the armillary sphere, which was used to identify the altitude of the sun or stars. However, the armillary sphere was invented later by the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes.

Arabic Astronomy

Arabians used to observe the night sky. They have also used lunar calendars.

 

 

Also, "Stonehenge" is an impressive monument built by the ancient people who lived in England. It provides us with a new astronomical area called "archaeoastronomy".

They built this to track the apparent paths of the moon and sun. Stonehenge's time-keeping function also helped them measure the changes in the seasons for their agricultural and ceremonial purposes.

So these impressive and mysterious structures provide us with a great source of knowledge in astronomy.

As the oldest science, astronomy seems to have been very useful for our ancestors for agricultural, religious, and ceremonial purposes.

 

Let's talk about the astronomical contribution of the ancient Greek astronomers who led the path to modern astronomy in next episode!💫