Anne Rooney The History Of Astronomy Summary

In The History Of Astronomy by Anne Rooney, it is explained how astronomy was used to keep time and create calendars, “The first human uses of astronomical observation were almost certainly to keep track of time” (Rooney 12). The Warren Field is an example of a way that was used to keep track of time. This was a field that consisted of pits, these pits were used to track time. Stones were dropped into these pits to keep track of time. When the last pit was reached it signified that the year had ended. The cycle then restarted starting again at the first pit. Many other sites were used to track time. Tracking the Sun, Moon, and other planets also helped to determine when it was a good growing season. This chapter also talks about the importance

Early models depicted that the earth was the center of our solar system and that the Sun and Moon orbited around it. The model by Philolaus included a star named the hearth of the universe. This model also included the Sun, Earth, and a Counter-Earth which helped to explain eclipses. This model also demonstrated the idea that Greece faced away from the hearth of the universe and counter-earth but towards the Sun. This explained why the Greeks couldn’t see counter-earth. The Ptolemaic model is a model that was used for a very long time. “The Ptolemaic model…explained the pattern of planetary movement” (Rooney, 51), This model had prevailed over any other model for 1,700 years. Centuries later discrepancies were found within the model due to the slow displacement of stars. This model was eventually discontinued and another model took its place. Also in this section different tools used in astronomy are discussed. A popular tool is an Antikythera Mechanism which was found in a shipwreck from the 1st century BC, “Indeed, so out of place would it seem in an ancient shipwreck” (Rooney 71). This tool mimicked planetary movement and Moon phases. It also predicted eclipses, tracked the exact location of the Sun, Moon, and other planets, and had a built-in calendar. This was considered a very advanced tool at the time it was

New stars that were discovered would be classified by position, color, brightness, and later size and composition. Galileo discovered a bank of thousands of stars, originally thought to be a cloud. The universe has mysteriously expanded, “Suddenly stars which no being on earth had ever seen before came into view” (Rooney 157). Due to this expansion, the number of discovered stars rapidly increased. Hipparchus created a star catalog that logged stars' positions. Many other catalogs had been created throughout the years tracking different stars. Catalogs were also created to track fuzzy objects, which are now known as supernovas, diffuse nebulae, planetary nebulae, clusters, and galaxies. The catalog of messier objects contains 110 objects. Edward Pickering created a team to photograph and classify stars. Most of the classifying was done by Williamina Fleming. Due to her great work, Pickering hired more women to join his team. One of these women, Annie, found a new way to classify stars, by temperature. In 1054, a new star was found by Chinese astronomers. This star was four times as bright as venus. Over time it eventually got dimmer. This star turned out to be the aftermath of a star exploding 6,500 years prior. The death of stars was called a supernova, after a star had exploded the remains would stay in the form of a cloud for many years. Tycho’s supernova, “Was irrefutable