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History of Astronomy and other stuff that amuses Mr. Hoover

History of Astronomy and other stuff that amuses Mr. Hoover. A powerpoint guide to a bunch of stuff about Astronomy. Astronomy.

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History of Astronomy and other stuff that amuses Mr. Hoover

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  1. History of Astronomy and otherstuff that amuses Mr. Hoover A powerpoint guide to a bunch of stuff about Astronomy.

  2. Astronomy • Study of the universe, which includes the planets and their satellites, comets, meteors, stars and interstellar matter,star systems know as galaxies and clusters of galaxies. • Developed from simple observations about the movement of the sun and moon into sophisticated theories about the nature of the universe.

  3. ARCHAEOASTRONOMY • The study of the astonomy of ancient people

  4. What is this Druid nonsense? a. a strip mall in Woodstock b. a perty picture c. Where they keep Elvis’ brain alive in a jar. d. Stonehenge, something to predict the winter and summer solstice.

  5. What is this?

  6. AstronomyThe Oldest Discipline of Science

  7. Nomadic cultures looked to the heavens for guidance and changes in natural cycles in order to survive year to year. • The first farmers relied on the changes in the heavens to tell them of the coming of spring, summer, fall and winter • The first true earliest civilizations were: • China - along the Hwang Ho river • India - along the Indus River • Babylonia and Summeria - along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers • Egypt - along the Nile

  8. The Chinese produced one of the first accurate documents of a year having365.25 days. • This was determined bylooking at the stars andtheir relationship withother celestial objects • Because of their abilityto trace the continualmovements of the stars,they were able to predictwhen an eclipse wouldoccur.

  9. Because the Chinesefeared eclipses ,theirastronomers watchedfor them and warnedthe citizens beforethey occurred. • Legend says two astronomers, Hi and Ho, once failed to sound a warning and panic struck the city. So they were beheaded. • The Chinese worshiped many celestial bodies including the Sun. The Great Temple at Peking is oriented to point towards the rising mid-winter Sun.

  10. The Babylonians and Assyrians used the Sun and other celestial bodies to tell them when to plant and harvest their crops. • In their calendar the 4th month is named for sowing and the 11th month is named for reaping. • They used the Moon to determine a lunar month of 29.5 days. • In order to get a full year they used twelve months, alternating between 29 and 30 days.

  11. This caused the year to have only 354 days. Thus after several years, in order to keep the seasons correct, they would have to add a thirteenth month. During this year with 13 months the sowing and reaping months did not align properly with the seasons and crops would suffer. This is the origin of “unlucky thirteen”.

  12. The Assyrians used the rising stars as their indicators of when to plant and harvest. • They had Astrologer priests who told them when these celestial activities would occur.

  13. They did this by looking at the twelve constellations through which the Sun passes in a year. These constellations together are called the zodiac.

  14. The Egyptians used the star Sirius to predict when the Nile would flood so they could plant their crops. • They were very strong in their belief in the Sun God, Ra,who would carry the Sun across the sky in his chariot, riding over his daughter’s back (Nut, pro-nounced “noot”). • During the night Ra wouldbe carried back to the eastby the underworld god.

  15. Many famous structures have been built that use the celestial bodies as key points in their design. • Most are thought to be calendars and/or places of worship. • Stonehenge is a group of massive stones accurately aligned with the Sun and Moon. Many structures have been built similar to Stonehenge, but smaller.

  16. St. Peter’s Cathedralwas built in align-ment with the Sunat the Equinox. • During the morningthe Sun shines onthe high alter aslight floods the Basilica. • During the evening the setting Sun shines through the Window of the Holy Ghost and makes an impressive display.

  17. The pyramids of Giza are aligned almost perfectly on the cardinal points: north, south, east, and west, varying at most by 1/12 of a degree. • Other Egyptian temples were devoted to various gods like Ra, the Sun God.

  18. Teotihuacan, Mexico - Temple of the Sun • This temple is aligned with the rising and setting Sun at the summer solstice . Inside the temple are paintings showing the positions of the Sun throughout the year.

  19. Starting about 600 B.C., the Greeks were the first to try to describe the cosmos (the orderly arrangement of the universe). Their concepts were based on religion or philosophy, not science. The Earth was thought to be a flat disk floating in water, air or space.

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