In July , a star could be seen blazing in the heavens. For three weeks it was so bright it could be seen in daylight. The only reason we know of it today is because Arab, Chinese, Japanese and Native American astronomers noted it. That supernova created what we now call the Crab Nebula. Chinese astronomers wrote about a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus that became four times brighter than Venus and was visible in daylight for 23 days. The yellow colored "guest star" was visible to the naked eye at night for days.
Anasazi Indian artists living in Arizona and New Mexico and the Mimbres Indians of New Mexico are thought to have recorded the supernova in their pottery. And the role of the moon? The moon is a more complicated creature in the sky, but it does do some things that are very obvious and simple and useful.
It races through the sky compared to the others, and as it does so it changes dramatically. People get this picture of the moon going through its monthly transformation and equate that with the female fertility cycle because the lengths of time are about the same.
It was, where are we in the progress of the stars, where are we in the progress of the sun, how many moons have gone by? Studying the Inca tradition, you said you had a remarkable revelation about the Pleiades constellation.
Can you tell us about it? The Pleiades were among the luminous gods depicted inside a temple at the heart of the Incan empire. The alignment of the temple was on the rising direction of the Pleiades. To archaeoastronomers, this seems very puzzling. The answer for a long time has been, well, the Pleiades were an important seasonal signal.
People talk about how many of the stars they see, how bright they appear to be, whether they are sharp, whether they are fuzzy. They make prognostications about their strategies for the coming year. These cirrus clouds are fundamentally invisible, but they do alter the appearance of things like stars in the sky, and the Pleiades are a very subtle thing to observe. The fact the Pleiades were prominent to the Incas at the time of the conquest suggests they have been doing this for at least years.
They are still doing it in villages in Peru. Did astronomy have a role beyond agriculture? Yes, early studies of the sky provided stability and structure to social and political organizations. A perfect example of this is the emperor in ancient China, who was regarded as the primary intermediary between Earth and the divine force in heaven. The emperor is sacred, and that stabilized and protected the way that the Chinese culture allowed itself to be governed.
He performed alchemy, he was an astronomer who got royal support. His extraordinary achievements epitomized pre-telescopic astronomy. Who are the founders of astronomy?
He consolidated the astronomical knowledge of his time, developed new and detailed methods of geometric calculation of celestial objects, and refined methods of pinpointing and predicting the position of the sun, moon, and planets.
Another key character is the Greek astronomer Hipparchus from the second century B. He came up with this idea when he saw ships disappear past the horizon as they sail. He was the first to suggest that the movement of the planets, sun, moon, and stars could be equated in numbers. There are numerous contributions of Ancient India in the field of Astronomy but the most notable one was by Aryabhatiya.
It is through him that Indian astronomy veered away from the mystical and religious and towards the scientific. Although his works are under the premise that the world is geocentric, many are still of value to modern mathematics and astronomy.
Aryabhatiya was able to assume that the Earth is rotating on its axis and that the Moon and other planets shine through reflected light from the Sun. Mayan astronomers sought guidance from the sky. They were particularly interested in studying the motion of the stars, sun, and other planets. The ancient Mayans have managed to observe and document these movements through shadow-casting devices they invented.
It is through these observations that they developed the Mayan Calendar to keep track of the passage of time. Having one of the most advanced and affluent cultures, Ancient Egypt has significant contributions to astronomy of today. Just like in any ancient civilization, the movements and patterns of the sky ignited the creation of myths to explain astronomical events. The Egyptians are not an exemption to this. They have huge pyramids and temples based on astronomical positions.
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