Ancient people, like people today, cared about astronomy because they believed the motions of celestial bodies predicted, in part or in full, future events and the behaviors of people..
Ancient peoples first looked up thousands of years ago, and the stars were there; pinpoints of light that seemed to slowly rotate around the Earth.
The first astronomers also noticed the planets, the Moon and the Sun, and their motions across the night sky..
People were interested in the celestial bodies and phenomena from the very beginning of humankind.
The sunrises and sunsets, the phases of the Moon and the change of seasons were things that moved people to make astronomical discoveries, and this is how astronomy started to develop..
Similar histories played out on different timelines in varied cultures across the world.
And that's why many historians consider astronomy to be the oldest science..
Throughout history civilizations have developed unique systems for ordering and understanding the heavens.
Babylonian and Egyptian astronomers developed systems that became the basis for Greek astronomy, while societies in the Americas, China and India developed their own..
Types of astronomy
In the past century or so, astronomy has been broadly split into two camps — observational astronomy (using telescopes and cameras to collect data about the night sky) and theoretical astronomy (using that data to analyze, model and theorize about how objects and phenomena work)..
One of the earliest recorded astronomical observations is the Nebra sky disk from northern Europe dating approximately 1,600 BC.
This 30 cm bronze disk depicts the Sun, a lunar crescent and stars (including the Pleiades star cluster)..
Astronomy (from the Greek ἀστρονομία from ἄστρον astron, "star" and -νομία -nomia from νόμος nomos, "law" or "culture") means "law of the stars" (or "culture of the stars" depending on the translation)..
Galileo Galilei pioneered the experimental scientific method and was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries.
He is often referred to as the “father of modern astronomy” and the “father of modern physics”..
When discussing who was the founder of modern astronomy
We must not fail to make of the great Nicolaus Copernicus.
His name is highly noted in this field
As he is the pioneer of what we now study and practice in the field of modern astronomy.
The Father of Modern Astronomy If you ask anyone who was the most influential astronomer of all time
It is a safe bet that the majority would name Galileo Galilei.
His contribution to observational astronomy was immense
Earning him a place as one of the greatest scientists of all time
Notable for his use of the scientific method in finding ...
REV.
MARTIN S.
BRENNAN Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543)
The founder of modern astronomy
was destined to become
Through the publication of his heliocentric theory
One of the seminal figures in the history of scientific thought.
The ancient Greeks were some of the first people to study the sky and understand astronomy.
They realized the Earth was a sphere
Or a three-dimensional circular object
And tried to measure its ...
Historians and astronomers now believe the Babylonians were among the first to recognize the planets Mercury
which become visible to the naked eye at different times of the year.
As early as the 6th century BCE
ancient Greek philosophers documented evidence that Earth was a sphere.
000 years to the time of the first civilizations
and the earliest astronomers who already figured out how to use the sky.
In some cultures
and other "elites" who studied the movement of celestial bodies to determine rituals
