Reviews

The history of by Heather Couper &

Cassell Illustrated, 2007. ISBN 978- 1-84403-570-0. Pp 288 (247× 297mm), £30 (hbk).

One of the great joys of the history of astronomy is that it can be treated on many different levels. You can delve deep and immerse yourself in four hundred page tomes on the significance of the ob- servations of the comet of 1577, and you can wallow in a huge three volume set of the letters of John Flamsteed, our first Astronomer Royal, or you can flit briefly and joyfully from highlight to highlight. Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest adopt the latter approach. They have travelled widely and interviewed many of the key players in recent astronomical and astrophysical history, as well as those who study the development of as- tronomy over the past few thousand years. The views of the authors and the peo- ing at some of the pictures of famous astro- ple they interviewed have then been skil- nomical scientists, one can often pick up fully knitted together to produce an im- hints of the darker side. I wonder how frus- mensely readable, easily accessible and racy trated Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bun- overview of mankind’s stumbling attempts sen felt trying to understand spectral lines to understand the cosmos. From Stonehenge before the electron had been discovered. to SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial In- Galileo Galilei looks very uncomfortable at telligence), and from black holes to Bethle- his inquisition, moving the Earth from the hem’s star, little has been overlooked. centre of the cosmos clearly has its conse- Half the page-area in this 285-page book quences; Carl Sagan’s furrowed brow un- is covered with illustrations, many of which derlines just how difficult it is to find extra- are refreshingly unfamiliar. I specially liked terrestrial life; and Martin Ryle might just Joseph Haydn conducting The Creation (was be about to show that the continuous crea- he really inspired to compose this by peep- tion theory could not explain the distance ing through William Herschel’s telescope?), between distant galaxies, but this discov- and the transit of Venus (a drunken synony- ery doesn’t raise even the hint of a smile. mous lady being stretchered off to jail by This book is a ‘must read’ introduction two rotund policemen!) I leave it to readers to an amazing human endeavour, our con- to work out the relevance of Richard Burton’s tinuing quest for cosmic understanding. Start Hamlet and the trial scene of Kepler’s mother. here, and then be prepared to spend the I loved this book. It is unpretentious, rest of your life diving ever deeper into one and uncluttered by source references and of the greatest scientific adventures. extraneous detail. Heather and Nigel always look on the bright side. Astronomy is mys- Carole Stott terious, often uncertain but always fun. Old Carole was once in charge of Britain’s foremost astronomers are fabulous, and the pursuit collection of astronomical instrumentation at the of astronomical knowledge is clearly one of Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich. She now writes the greatest scientific adventures. But look- professionally in the field of space and astronomy.

This review is copyright © the Journal of the British Astronomical Association, www.britastro.org/ journal. If you wish to reproduce it, or place it on your own Web page, please contact the Editor: Mrs Hazel McGee, hazelmcgee "at" btinternet.com

J. Br. Astron. Assoc. 118, 4, 2008 217 History of Astronomy. Ancient civilizations believed their gods lived in the skies, and so early astronomy was often a mix of detailed observations of the celestual heavens and religion. As well as a method of trying to divine the will of the gods, astronomy also allowed for more practical applications, such as predicting the cycle of the seasons for farming, measuring time and as a directional compass. By 5000 BCE, ancient peoples had started constructing sun observatories, such as the Neolithic Era ‘Goseck circle’, to accurately measure the heavens. The Sumerians and Babylonians then kep som The history of astronomy is the study of astronomical observances that date back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World (see astrology and astronomy). In some cultures, astronomical data was used History of Astronomy: We have very little in the form of recorded information on early man's impression of the heavens, mostly some drawings of eclipses, comets, supernovae such as the Pueblo Petrograph (see below). However, early man was clearly frightened/overwhelmed by the sky. One of the earliest recorded astronomical observations is the Nebra sky disk from northern Europe dating approximately 1,600 BC. Even if we consider some of the stories to be ridiculous, they were, in some sense, our first scientific theories. They also, usually, follow a particular religion, and so this time is characterized by a close marriage of science and religion. Hellenistic Culture (~500 B.C.) 18 Historians of astronomy. 19 References. 20 Refereed Journals. 21 External links. Early history. Early cultures identified celestial objects with gods and spirits.[1] They related these objects (and their movements) to phenomena such as rain, drought, seasons, and tides. Depending on the historian's viewpoint, the acme or corruption of physical Greek astronomy is seen with Ptolemy of Alexandria, who wrote the classic comprehensive presentation of geocentric astronomy, the Megale Syntaxis (Great Synthesis), better known by its Arabic title Almagest, which had a lasting effect on astronomy up to the Renaissance. Definition of astronomy: Astronomy is the study of the sun, moon, stars, planets, comets, gas, galaxies, gas, dust and other non-Earthly bodies and phenomena. In curriculum for K-4 students, NASA defines astronomy as simple "the study of stars, planets and space." Astronomy and astrology were historically associated, but astrology is not a science and is no longer recognized as having anything to do with astronomy. Below we discuss the history of astronomy and related fields of study, including cosmology. NGC 7026, a planetary nebula, lies just beyond the tip of the tail of the constellation o The history of astronomy is the study of astronomical observances that date back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World (see astrology and astronomy). In some cultures, astronomical data was used... Astronomy is the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole. From this perspective, the study of celestial bodies can be reasonably said to have begun when at some point humanity looked up and began to observe the moon and the stars and the planets regardless of how they may have thought of them. These ancient beginnings are often indicated by structures studied by archeologists. Stonehenge, constructed some time between 3100 and 2000 BC, may have constituted an... Trace the Earliest History of Astronomy. Share. Flipboard. Astronomy is humanity's oldest science. People have been looking up, trying to explain what they see in the sky probably since the first "human-like" cave dwellers existed. There's a famous scene in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, where a hominid named Moonwatcher surveys the sky, taking in the sights and pondering what he sees. It's likely that such beings really did exist, trying to make some sense of the cosmos as they saw it. Prehistoric Astronomy. Fast forward about 10,000 years to the time of the first civilizations, and the earliest astronomers who already figured out how to use the sky.