History of Astronomy - part 1

First, some history:  epicycles

http://astro.unl.edu/naap/ssm/animations/ptolemaic.swf

Worldviews:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2jRGYC/dd.dynamicdiagrams.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/orrery_2006.swf/

http://www.solarsystemscope.com/

Some background details will be discussed in class. Here are some people and dates of note:


Claudius Ptolemy
90 - 168 CE
Almagest, 150 -- the essential book of ancient Greek astronomy.  Employed a geocentric P.O.V., punctuated with epicycles.  THE source on astronomy for well over 1000 years.

Nicolaus Copernicus
1473 - 1543
De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium
The "Scientific Revolution" is often thought of as beginning with this book.  It's a major treatise that assumes a heliocentric universe:

"... in the midst of all stands the sun. For who could in this most beautiful temple place this lamp in another or better place than that from which it can at the same time illuminate the whole? Which some not unsuitably call the light of the world, others the soul or ruler. Trismegistus calls it the visible God, the Electra of Sophocles, the all-seeing. So indeed does the sun, sitting on the royal throne, steer the revolving family of stars."

Tycho Brahe
1546 - 1601
Adopted a hybrid cosmos:  still Earth-centered, but all planets orbit the Sun (which itself orbits the Earth).

Johannes Kepler
1571 - 1630
Astronomia Nova
Brahe's assistant who was also a strong Copernican.  Used Brahe's massive data to develop what we now call Kepler's Laws (forthcoming in the next blog post).  The first real appearances of celestial mechanics.

Galileo Galilei
1564 - 1642
Siderius Nuncius
Dialogue on Two Chief World Systems
Discourse on Two New Sciences
So much to say about GG.  First modern scientist?  Maybe that's a stretch, but he rightfully gets credit for marrying mathematics and science.  A short list of accomplishments must include his telescopic accomplishments:  sunspots, phases of Venus, moons of Jupiter, craters on the Moon, stars in the Milky Way, rings of Saturn.  He used these ideas to advance the arguments for Copernicanism (which was ultimately his downfall and cause for condemnation).

Isaac Newton
1642 - 1727
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
The laws of mechanics - a set of "first principles" from which much of physics can be derived
Law of Universal Gravitation
Optics, reflecting telescope
Calculus
Binomial theorem
Tides
Orbits
much more....

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For Galileo:

http://galileo.rice.edu/

http://galileo.rice.edu/bio/index.html

I also recommend "Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel. Actually, anything she writes is pretty great historical reading. See also her "Longitude."

It is also worth reading about Copernicus and the Scientific Revolution.

For those of you interested in ancient science, David Lindberg's "Beginnings of Western Science" is amazing.

In general, John Gribbin's "The Scientists" is a good intro book about the history of science, in general. I recommend this for all interested in the history of intellectual pursuits.

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More historical information regarding Newton:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

This is really exhaustive - only for the truly interested.

This one is a bit easier to digest:

http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/newton.html

We'll return to Newton's gravitation (along with Kepler) shortly.