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Author
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Topic: Astronomy in the middle ages
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bent one
Senior Member
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posted 10-29-2005 05:11 PM
 
What happened in astronomy during the middle ages? I understand that the first telescope wasn't made until much later so it must have been mostly naked eye observation. I remember seeing a tapestry that had an image of a comet on it. I think it was the battle of Hastings that was being depicted and it was supposed to be some sort of omen. What were peoples ideas about the universe and the how and why of the night sky.
Because this was well before Gallileos work were they using the idea of the earth being the center of everything. Are there any sites about this? does anyone know more about it? Did astronomy not really take off until Telescopes were invented? |
Paul
unregistered
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posted 10-31-2005 08:17 AM
There is an interesting article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astronomy
Halley's comet was seen at the Battle of Hastings, Oct 14th 1066, and it is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry http://www.sjolander.com/viking/museum/bt/bt.htm Regards, Paul. |
Malc_Chr
Member
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posted 10-31-2005 01:25 PM
Some say that telescopes were around long before the middle ages. It is said that Democritus would not have been able to say that the Milky Way was made of stars without a telescope.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/380186.stm Before Astronomy the Egyptians practiced astrolatry, which is the study of stars so they might be duly worshipped. This would inevitably lead to those who weren't interested in religion studying them too. The Babylonians knew how long it took Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter took to return to the same point in the sky. The Greeks also did the best they could - although they did get it wrong, for example Aristarchus said that the sun was no more than 20 times further away from earth, than the Moon. I have been to see the worlds largest astrolabe in Samarkand, that was built in 1420 by Ulugh Beg, this was very much the instrument of astronomers before the telescope. This might have been invented by Hipparchus in the 2nd Century BC. |
bent one
Senior Member
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posted 11-10-2005 12:52 PM
Sorry it took me so long to get back! been working. Thanks for all the information!I have heard about telescopes that did not have lenses I don't know how they worked but I'm going to go look at them. I really did not expect that much astronomy predceding the invention of the telescope but I did expect that early cultures tracked stars and planets, you really don't have to have a telescope to record them. The question about the milky way seems that he might have needed a telescope but we also need to remember that air and light pollution was not as bad as it is now so he could have seen many of the faint nebulae and concluded that it was made of stars. Many of the fainter objects are bigger than the apparent size of the moon I will look into astrolabes as well, who invented the device anyway? was it an ancient machine or do we have a definite date for its invention? |
bent one
Senior Member
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posted 11-10-2005 11:20 PM
The elescope I mentioned without lenses turns out to have been mislabled it was a marker stone and not a telescope. |
Steve-O-Gerst
Senior Member
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posted 12-22-2005 01:36 AM
I've been a little interested in Astrolabes myself. Apparently, they were of arabic origin, and until the invention of the sextant, they were an important navigational tool.I believe that throughout the middle ages, astronomy was closely tied with astrology. Many physicians believed that waiting for a proper time was astrologically important when performing surgeries. Beyond medical school, and sailors, I wouldn't expect too many astronomers to be around. Some people even believed that looking at the moon caused insanity. |
Merlin
Senior Member
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posted 12-22-2005 03:41 AM
The two of them were closely tied together from the beginning. Think of the old Babylonians, Egyptians etc. |
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