Category Archives: Historical

Sextants – Then and Now

Posted on February 12, 2023 by 7smessier45

Humans have navigated the open ocean for thousands of years; among the first to do so were the aboriginal Australians and Polynesian seafarers about 50,000 years ago. More recently–but still a few hundred years ago–celestial navigation by Western cultures relied on a navigator’s understanding of the stars (and other heavenly bodies, including the sun), the […] Continue reading →

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Retrograde… what the heck

Posted on February 12, 2023 by sadiekarr

(Diagram showing Ptolemy’s early explanation of retrograde motion) Understanding retrograde can get a little confusing. Before taking astronomy, I’d only ever heard the term used by the astrology girlies. I thought maybe it was another “constellations are not real” scenario- but retrograde is real! Early astronomer Ptolemy (c. AD 100), as he observed the night […] Continue reading →

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Celestial Navigation Techniques Blog #2

Posted on February 12, 2023 by reidwalker87

Before any GPS or easy to use maps, explorers were completely reliant on the stars and their hunches to determine their location during their travels. In the Northern Hemisphere, it was much easier to determine latitude because of the conveniently located star Polaris just above the northern celestial pole. Using the Sun is also a […] Continue reading →

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Ancient Mayan Astronomy

Posted on February 11, 2023 by zws42

The ancient Mayan civilization, which existed from approximately 2000 BCE to 1500 CE in present day Mexico and Central America, had a highly advanced understanding of astronomy. They used their astronomical knowledge for many things, including religious rituals, calendar systems, and timekeeping. Their primary focus was on tracking the movements of the sun, moon, and […] Continue reading →

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

Posted on February 11, 2023 by oilrigatoni

To me, one of the most interesting historical phenomena related to the cosmos occurred in modern day Mexico in the year 1531. This is just after the Spaniards had conquered much of the region through bloodshed and war. However, one moment of peace emerged from the area. Our Lady of Guadalupe is a well-known image […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post 2 – What was Stonehenge really for?

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Melanie Marszal

Most people have seen pictures or heard of Stonehenge, an ancient monument on the Salisbury Plain in England. Personally, while I had seen references to Stonehenge in the media, I never actually knew what it was for, or what people thought it was for. It has been difficult for historians to find a definitive answer, […] Continue reading →

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The Trial of Galileo

Posted on February 9, 2023 by reachforthestarsbysam

Galileo Galilei is one of the most renowned figures in astronomy history, as he was one of the biggest and most meticulous supporters of the heliocentric model of the universe. However, Galileo not only had to fight against the fact that for all of history the idea of the geocentric solar system had been accepted […] Continue reading →

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archaeoastronomy

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Emma Williams

Astronomy hasn’t always been practiced the way that it is today! For many centuries, different civilizations have conceptualized the universe in a wide range of ways covering the entire spectrums of science and mythology– from this, at the intersection of astronomy and anthropology, the field of archaeoastronomy was born! The field began with the discovery […] Continue reading →

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Ancient Egypt Switches from the 360 to 365-Day Year

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Europa

The other day, my friend told me about an Ancient Egyptian myth regarding the switch from the 360 to the 365-day calendar in Egypt. At the time, I just thought it was a cool story, but later realized that it was a perfect example of archaeoastronomy. Before 4200 BCE, the Ancient Egyptian calendar year was […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 4, 2023 by sahilreddy2

Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, and died on November 15, 1630. He was crucial for advances in Astronomy as he discovered that the Earth and planets travel the sun in elliptical orbits. Furthermore, he also created three laws (called Kepler’s Law’s) that were integral to planetary motion. These laws stated that the […] Continue reading →

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