Ancient Skies ~ A First Look at Early Astronomy

In a captivating blend of storytelling and scientific exposition, this book takes a first look at early astronomy for the uninitiated, from its nascent stages to the dawn of modern science. It presents a portrait of the early astronomers who observed the heavens with near obsessive thoroughness, charted the celestial sphere in new ways, and became the first scientists of the sky. The story opens a window to a less well-known, sometimes misunderstood part of our scientific heritage revealing the earliest roots of physical science. Beginning with the conceptual astronomy of the Greeks to the almost purely empirical science of Babylon, Ancient Stars takes us through Claudius Ptolemy’s conflict – and hopeful resolution – between the universe as observed and Greek ideas of how the universe ought to be, continuing with the seminal mathematical achievements on the road to Isaac Newton. All of the actors presented in the book learned to devise methods, hypotheses, and models based more completely on observation because those were the ones that worked. It was always slow going. It took centuries for the successors of Babylonian astronomy to throw off the warm blanket of Greek thought and see the sky as it really is. The projects we tell about in Ancient Stars encompass four watershed intellectual developments in the growth of early astronomy, snapshots of events occurring over a great arc of time, leapfrogging over swaths of history. Yet they are part of a remarkable, common, and intellectually continuous human enterprise, driven by curiosity – of one investigator, generations removed, calmly picking up where his predecessor left off. That it was a common and intellectually continuous project is an essential part of the story that has not been adequately told. Early astronomy is often misrepresented in the popular literature by judgments that appear sadly dated. New research and investigative tools, however, have enhanced our understanding of the early works of astronomical science. This book presents a refreshingly contemporary perspective correcting outdated and incomplete accounts.