A Short History of Astronomy

CHAPTER I.

PRIMITIVE ASTRONOMY, §§ 1-18 1-20

§ 1. Scope of astronomy 1

§§ 2-5. First notions: the motion of the sun: the motion and phases of the moon: daily motion of the stars 1

§ 6. Progress due to early civilised peoples: Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, and Chaldaeans 3

§ 7. The celestial sphere: its scientific value: apparent distance between the stars: the measurement of angles 4

§§ 8-9. The rotation of the celestial sphere: the North and South poles: the daily motion: the celestial equator: circumpolar stars 7

§§ 10-11. The annual motion of the sun: great circles: the ecliptic and its obliquity: the equinoxes and equinoctial points: the solstices and solstitial points 8

§§ 12-13. The constellations: the zodiac, signs of the zodiac, and zodiacal constellations: the first point of Aries (♈), and the first point of Libra (♎) 12

§ 14. The five planets: direct and retrograde motions: stationary points 14

§ 15. The order of nearness of the planets: occultations: superior and inferior planets 15

§ 16. Measurement of time: the day and its division into hours: the lunar month: the year: the week 17

§ 17. Eclipses: the saros 19

§ 18. The rise of Astrology 20

CHAPTER II.. Greek Astronomy (from About 600 B.c. to About

GREEK ASTRONOMY (FROM ABOUT 600 B.C. TO ABOUT 400 A.D.), §§ 19-54 21-75

§§ 19-20. =Astronomy up to the time of Aristotle.= The Greek calendar: full and empty months: the octaeteris: Meton’s cycle 21

§ 21. The Roman calendar: introduction of the Julian Calendar 22

§ 22. The Gregorian Calendar 23

§ 23. Early Greek speculative astronomy: Thales and Pythagoras: the spherical form of the earth: the celestial spheres: the music of the spheres 24

§ 24. Philolaus and other Pythagoreans: early believers in the motion of the earth: Aristarchus and Seleucus 25

§ 25. Plato: uniform circular and spherical motions 26

§ 26. Eudoxus: representation of the celestial motions by combinations of spheres: description of the constellations. Callippus 27

§§ 27-30. Aristotle: his spheres: the phases of the moon: proofs that the earth is spherical: his arguments against the motion of the earth: relative distances of the celestial bodies: other speculations: estimate of his astronomical work 29

§§ 31-2. =The early Alexandrine school=: its rise: Aristarchus: his estimates of the distances of the sun and moon. Observations by Timocharis and Aristyllus 34

§§ 33-4. Development of spherics: the Phenomena of Euclid: the horizon, the zenith, poles of a great circle, verticals, declination circles, the meridian, celestial latitude and longitude, right ascension and declination. Sun-dials 36

§ 35. The division of the surface of the earth into zones 37

§ 36. Eratosthenes: his measurement of the earth: and of the obliquity of the ecliptic 39

§ 37. =Hipparchus=: his life and chief contributions to astronomy. Apollonius’s representation of the celestial motions by means of circles. General account of the theory of eccentrics and epicycles 40

§§ 38-9. Hipparchus’s representation of the motion of the sun, by means of an eccentric: apogee, perigee, line of apses, eccentricity: equation of the centre: the epicycle and the deferent 41

§ 40. Theory of the moon: lunation or synodic month and sidereal month: motion of the moon’s nodes and apses: draconitic month and anomalistic month 47

§ 41. Observations of planets: eclipse method of connecting the distances of the sun and moon: estimate of their distances 49

§ 42. His star catalogue. Discovery of the precession of the equinoxes: the tropical year and the sidereal year 51

§ 43. Eclipses of the sun and moon: conjunction and opposition: partial, total, and annular eclipses: parallax 56

§ 44. Delambre’s estimate of Hipparchus 61

§ 45. The slow progress of astronomy after the time of Hipparchus: Pliny’s proof that the earth is round: new measurements of the earth by Posidonius 61

§ 46. =Ptolemy.= The Almagest and the Optics: theory of refraction 62

§ 47. Account of the Almagest: Ptolemy’s postulates: arguments against the motion of the earth 63

§ 48. The theory of the moon: evection and prosneusis 65

§ 49. The astrolabe. Parallax, and distances of the sun and moon 67

§ 50. The star catalogue: precession 68

§ 51. Theory of the planets: the equant 69

§ 52. Estimate of Ptolemy 73

§ 53. The decay of ancient astronomy: Theon and Hypatia 73

§ 54. Summary and estimate of Greek astronomy 74

CHAPTER III.. The Middle Ages (from About 600 a.d. to About

THE MIDDLE AGES (FROM ABOUT 600 A.D. TO ABOUT 1500 A.D.), §§ 55-69 76-91

§ 55. The slow development of astronomy during this period 76

§ 56. =The East.= The formation of an astronomical school at the court of the Caliphs: revival of astrology: translations from the Greek by Honein ben Ishak, Ishak ben Honein, Tabit ben Korra, and others 76

§§ 57-8. The Bagdad observatory. Measurement of the earth. Corrections of the astronomical data of the Greeks: trepidation 78

§ 59. Albategnius: discovery of the motion of the sun’s apogee 79

§ 60. Abul Wafa: supposed discovery of the variation of the moon. Ibn Yunos: the Hakemite Tables 79

§ 61. Development of astronomy in the Mahometan dominions in Morocco and Spain: Arzachel: the Toletan Tables 80

§ 62. Nassir Eddin and his school: Ilkhanic Tables: more accurate value of precession 81

§ 63. Tartar astronomy: Ulugh Begh: his star catalogue 82

§ 64. Estimate of oriental astronomy of this period: Arabic numerals: survivals of Arabic names of stars and astronomical terms: nadir 82

§ 65. =The West.= General stagnation after the fall of the Roman Empire: Bede. Revival of learning at the court of Charlemagne: Alcuin 83

§ 66. Influence of Mahometan learning: Gerbert: translations from the Arabic: Plato of Tivoli, Athelard of Bath, Gherardo of Cremona. Alfonso X. and his school: the Alfonsine Tables and the Libros del Saber 84

§ 67. The schoolmen of the thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus, Cecco d’Ascoli, Roger Bacon. Sacrobosco’s Sphaera Mundi 85

§ 68. Purbach and Regiomontanus: influence of the original Greek authors: the Nürnberg school: Walther: employment of printing: conflict between the views of Aristotle and of Ptolemy: the celestial spheres of the Middle Ages: the firmament and the primum mobile 86

§ 69. Lionardo da Vinci: earthshine. Fracastor and Apian: observations of comets. Nonius. Fernel’s measurement of the earth 90

CHAPTER IV.

COPPERNICUS (FROM 1473 A.D. TO 1543 A.D.), §§ 70-92 92-124

§ 70. The Revival of Learning 92

§§ 71-4. Life of Coppernicus: growth of his ideas: publication of the Commentariolus: Rheticus and the Prima Narratio: publication of the De Revolutionibus 93

§ 75. The central idea in the work of Coppernicus: relation to earlier writers 99

§§ 76-9. The =De Revolutionibus=. The first book: the postulates: the principle of relative motion, with applications to the apparent annual motion of the sun, and to the daily motion of the celestial sphere 100

§ 80. The two motions of the earth: answers to objections 105

§ 81. The motion of the planets 106

§ 82. The seasons 108

§ 83. End of first book. The second book: decrease in the obliquity of the ecliptic: the star catalogue 110

§ 84. The third book: precession 110

§ 85. The third book: the annual motion of the earth: aphelion and perihelion. The fourth book: theory of the moon: distances of the sun and moon: eclipses 111

§§ 86-7. The fifth and sixth books: theory of the planets: synodic and sidereal periods 112

§ 88. Explanation of the stationary points 118

§§ 89-90. Detailed theory of the planets: defects of the theory 121

§ 91. Coppernicus’s use of epicycles 122

§ 92. A difficulty in his system 123

CHAPTER V.. The Reception of the Coppernican Theory and the Progress

THE RECEPTION OF THE COPPERNICAN THEORY AND THE PROGRESS OF OBSERVATION (FROM ABOUT 1543 A.D. TO ABOUT 1601 A.D.), §§ 93-112 125-144

§§ 93-4. The first reception of the De Revolutionibus: Reinhold: the Prussian Tables 125

§ 95. Coppernicanism in England: Field, Recorde, Digges 127

§ 96. Difficulties in the Coppernican system: the need for progress in dynamics and for fresh observations 127

§§ 97-8. The Cassel Observatory: the Landgrave William IV., Rothmann, and Bürgi: the star catalogue: Bürgi’s invention of the pendulum clock 128

§ 99. =Tycho Brahe=: his early life 130

§ 100. The new star of 1572: travels in Germany 131

§§ 101-2. His establishment in Hveen: Uraniborg and Stjerneborg: life and work in Hveen 132

§ 103. The comet of 1577, and others 135

§ 104. Books on the new star and on the comet of 1577 136

§ 105. Tycho’s system of the world: quarrel with Reymers Bär 136

§ 106. Last years at Hveen: breach with the King 138

§ 107. Publication of the Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica and of the star catalogue: invitation from the Emperor 139

§ 108. Life at Benatek: co-operation of Kepler: death 140

§ 109. Fate of Tycho’s instruments and observations 141

§ 110. Estimate of Tycho’s work: the accuracy of his observations: improvements in the art of observing 141

§ 111. Improved values of astronomical constants. Theory of the moon: the variation and the annual equation 143

§ 112. The star catalogue: rejection of trepidation: unfinished work on the planets 144

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