Early Astronomy

Early Astronomy

Ancient Greeks

• The "Golden Age" of early Astronomy was center in Greece (600 B.C - A.D 150)

• Greeks used philosophical arguments to explain the natural world and observations

Ancient Greeks

• 
  

  They used trigonometry and geometry to measure the sizes and distances of the sun and the moon.

Fill in the Blanks

According to Aristotle, the Earth must be round because

Aristotle (Greek philosopher)

• said the world was round because it always casts a curved shadow on the moon when it pases between the moon and the sun.

Eratoshenes

• discovered the circumference of the planet was about 39, 300 kilometers

• know we know that it is actually 40, 075 kilometers

Multiple Choice

What did Eratosthenes discovered?

• the earth's circumference

• that the earth is round

• the earth's distance from the sun.

Hipparchus

• he catalog all the stars

• determined the location of almost 850 stars

• he divided stars into 6 groups according to their brightness.

• he determined how long was a year

Open Ended

What did Hipparchus discovered?