Daily Archives: February 2, 2023

Historical Astronomers in Context

Galileo was born in Italy on February 15, 1564 and died in January of 1642 after several years on house arrest. However, conversations of his life’s work has spanned centuries. I have come to know him once again as I am in a class on Galileo and his trials. Within the conversations on modern day […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context – Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 and died on March 31, 1727. He contributed immensely to the study of astronomy, as he invented the reflecting telescope, calculus, and the theory of gravitation. His contributions to both science and mathematics truly bolstered the pursuit of astronomy and cemented him as one of, if not, […] Continue reading

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Old Space Dudes

You may be wondering… why is there a football? Good question. You will see. Anyways, we’re talking about old dudes who studied the sky. Doesn’t sound very interesting, right? But some of them were pretty cool. I mean, not like Hannibal riding elephants cool, but about 2 log scales below that. Anyways, we got some […] Continue reading

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A Pretty Crazy Dude

(Historic Astronomer Tycho Brahe) Tycho Brahe is one crazy dude. Mostly awesome crazy. He was born December 14, 1546, and died October 24, 1601. Tycho Brahe was the greatest naked eye observer of all time. He had incredibly great vision and documented what he saw. He was relatively well off and was about to build […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context: Galileo Galilei

The Astronomer Born in late 16th century Italy, Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642) went on to make fundamental contributions to STEM fields and laid the foundations for the scientific revolution. In the field of astronomy, he improved upon existing designs for the telescope. Galileo’s improvements made the tool much more powerful […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Nicholas Copernicus was the creator of heliocentric theory: the idea that the Earth orbits the Sun, rather than the other way around. He also correctly theorized that the seasons were caused by Earth’s axial tilt. His discoveries paved the way for future astronomers, but in his day, he was regarded as a heretic by the […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

(For the above and later information on Brahe, I used Brittanica, the online encyclopedia)  Brahe’s life overlapped with Galileo 37 years and with Kepler 30 years Galileo’s life overlapped with Kepler 71 years  (Determined through calculations of the above dates)  (For this response I used the Ninth Edition of the Cosmic Perspective: The Solar System, […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Nicholas Copernicus was important to science for creating a model of the universe that placed the sun at the center. The sun-centered model was different from the Earth-centric model that had long been more popular and supported by the church.

He… Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context: Johannes Kepler

Background Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 to November 15, 1630) was important to astronomy for several reasons. He is most well-known for developing a model of planetary motion that fit Tycho’s data. Kepler’s first law states that the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. His second law states […] Continue reading

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Johannes Kepler (Born Dec 27th, 1571 and died Nov 15th, 1630) made a vital contribution to astronomy in the form of his three laws of gravitation. His laws, which he did not consider “laws” at the time, were based off a theological framework.  Kepler’s work with Tycho Brahe let him access the data to discover […] Continue reading

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