1. Celestial sphere, poles, and equator and relation to Earth’s poles and equator, concept of
direction (north, east, south and west)
2. What an observer sees, horizon, zenith, celestial meridian; altitude and latitude, daily
(diurnal) motion in different parts of sky and different latitudes
3. Sun's annual motion: evidence, path around ecliptic; equinoxes and solstices, their
meanings, their approximate dates, and Sun's noon altitude; Sun’s diurnal (daily) motion
rising and setting points through year for observer’s at different latitudes
4. Equatorial coordinates: hour angle, right ascension and declination, units
5. Time keeping, apparent solar time, mean solar time, sidereal time
6. Sidereal year vs. tropical year, precession and its effects; heliacal rising of stars
7. Moon's phases and time of day; its motion relative to stars, ascending and descending
nodes; synodic, sidereal, and nodical (draconic) months, relative lengths and why,
regression of nodes, lunar major and minor standstills
8. Inferior and superior planets, configurations, transits, motions on celestial sphere and
retrograde motion, synodic vs. sidereal periods, heliacal rising of planets
9. Stonehenge: megalith; main elements, possible alignments, Stonehenge Decoded and
Aubrey holes; considerations for astronomical identifications generally; probable use
10. Newgrange: alignment, probable use
11. Inca: Coricancha symbolism and alignment; Pleiades heliacal rising; ceque system,
huacas, social and spatial organization, and calendar; Cerro Picchu and planting,
antizenith (nadir) sunsets
12. Maya: building alignments, vigesimal number system, calendars and astronomical
connections, Dresden Codex, heliacal rising of Venus and significance
13. Native American astronomy: medicine wheels, Hopi Soyal ceremony
14. Celestial navigation by Pacific Islanders
15. Instruments: gnomon, zenith tube; backsight and foresight, baseline and accuracy
16. Egyptian calendars, Sothis period; decans, time of night; pyramid alignments
17. early Chinese astronomy -- lifa and tianwen as state functions; lunisolar calendar;
recognition of periodicities; astrology: idea of disorder in heavens caused by misrule or
disruptions on Earth; Shih Shen, early star catalogue; Guo Shou-jing -- obliquity, length
of year; extensive records of comets and "guest stars" (novae and supernovae) like that of
1054 AD
18. early Babylonians -- cuneiform, sexagesimal number system
19. Babylonians -- earliest document Venus tablet, observation of Moon and planets over
extended period for astrology (state, not individual), recognition of periodicities in lunar
and planetary phenomena, creation of ephemerides; motion in longitude of Sun, Moon,
planets approximated, including zigzag (Kidinnu); saros and Saros-Canon, predictions of
lunar eclipses
20. Babylonian calendars -- basic problem of lunar vs. annual, intercalation; 8-yr cycle,
Metonic cycle
21. Thales -- cosmos as object of contemplation; flat Earth under domed sky; solar eclipse
"prediction"
22. Pythagoras and his school: numerology; spherical Earth, Moon, Sun; "music of the
spheres;" Philolaus's cosmology
23. Plato -- distrust of appearances, use reason to find forms; image of concentric spheres
with planets
24. Eudoxus -- mathematical model: concentric spheres centered on Earth, hippopede;
problems
25. Aristotle -- geocentric physical model based on Eudoxus; arguments for spherical Earth;
argument of fall; argument against Earth's orbiting Sun; quinta essentia and immutability;
ideas about comets and meteors; ideas about motion; approximate date
26. Heraclides -- Earth's rotation; Mercury and Venus orbit Sun
27. Aristarchus -- Hellenistic astronomy; relative distances of Sun and Moon; dimensions of
Sun and Moon relative to Earth; heliocentric model; approximate date
28. Eratosthenes -- position; circumference of Earth
29. Hipparchus -- star catalogue with celestial longitudes and latitudes, magnitudes;
discovery of precession; inequality of seasons and Sun's orbit; Moon's orbit; Moon's
geocentric parallax; accurate lengths of various kinds of months and of year; approximate
date
30. Ptolemy -- geocentric model using epicycles (Apollonius), equant and other problems;
Matematike syntaxis and Tetrabiblos: tables for predicting positions of Sun, Moon,
planets; refinement and extension of Hipparchus's work, including geocentric parallaxes
of Sun and Moon; astrology; Planetary Hypotheses; approximate date
31. importance of astronomy in Islamic lands -- calendar, timekeeping (muwaqqit), direction
to Mecca (qibla), astrology (zij)
32. Caliph al-Ma'mun and the House of Wisdom, al-Khwarizmi, translation -- Almagest,
approximate date
33. Thabit ibn-Qurra -- critic of Ptolemy, trepidation (based on erroneous data)
34. Muhammad al-Battani (Albategnius) -- introduction of sines, spherical trigonometry;
improved Ptolemaic model, especially solar orbit
35. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi -- used Ptolemy's catalogue with improved magnitudes for star
maps -- Book on Constellations of Fixed Stars
36. Abd al-Rahman Ibn Yunus -- observer, large instruments; Hakemite Tables included
observations of eclipses and conjunctions; fairly good value for atmospheric refraction
37. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) -- critic of Ptolemy, On the Configuration of the World; book
on optics
38. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi -- Maragha Observatory, revised Ptolemy's model of motion in
latitude; eliminated equant by using two extra epicycles; eliminated eccentric; Ilkhanic
Tables
39. Ibn al-Shatir -- eliminated equant by introducing extra epicycle; refined Moon's motion
40. Ulugh Beg -- Samarkand Observatory; star catalogue with newly-measured positions
41. Ibn al-Zarqala (Arzachel) -- Toledo Tables
42. Alfonsine Tables -- origin of name; Isaac ben Said and Jehuda ben Moses Cohen;
precession and trepidation; significance; approximate date
43. ecliptic coordinates: definitions, units
44. naked-eye instruments -- gnomon; armillary sphere (equatorial and zodiacal); astrolabe;
mural quadrant, hand-held quadrant; triquetrum (three-staff)
45. Medieval criticism of Aristotle's theory of motion -- Buridan, Oresme; impetus, argument
of fall
46. Sacrobosco (John of Holywood) -- medieval texts on astronomy, esp. Tractatus de
sphaera
47. dichotomy both in Islamic thought and in late medieval cosmology -- Aristotle vs.
Ptolemy
48. Georg Peurbach (or Purbach) -- New Theory of the Planets, Epitome of Ptolemy (with
Regiomontanus)
49. Regiomontanus (Johannes Mueller) -- pupil of Peurbach; Epitome (with Peurbach);
Ephemerides
50. Bernhard Walther -- pupil of Regiomontanus; extensive series of fairly accurate
observations; rediscovered atmospheric refraction
51. Nicolaus Copernicus -- background; dissatisfaction with Ptolemaic model; Brief
Commentary, On the Revolutions and his model, true place of Sun; roles of Rheticus
(Georg Joachim) and Osiander; significance; approximate date
52. Erasmus Reinhold -- Prutenic Tables
53. Tycho Brahe -- background; "new star" of 1572 and comet of 1577; observations from
Uraniborg and Stjerneborg; treatment of refraction; Tychonic theory
54. Johannes Kepler -- background; Cosmographic Mystery, New Astronomy; Survey of
Copernican Astronomy and Harmony of the World, laws of planetary motion; Rudolphine
Tables; approximate date
55. Galileo Galilei -- background; correspondence with Kepler; Starry Messenger and
discoveries with telescope; Letter to Grand Duchess Christina and consequences;
Dialogue on the Two Great World Systems and consequences; Discourses on Two New
Sciences
56. Francis Bacon: experimental philosophy, inductive method; New Atlantis, organization of
science; practical application of science
57. Rene Descartes: critical doubt; deductive method and use of reason, Principles of
Philosophy, plenum, vortices, theory of comets, infinite universe
58. scientific societies -- Accademia dei Lincei and Accademia del Cimento (Italy), Royal
Society (England) and Robert Hooke, Academie des Sciences (France); publications
59. Christiaan Huygens: "aerial" telescope; Saturn's rings and large satellite; centripetal
force; pendulum clock
60. G. D. Cassini: first director Paris Observatory, 4 small satellites of Saturn, Cassini
Division
61. Hevelius: lunar map; accurate positions without telescope, dispute with Hooke
62. Newton: origin; calculus (ind. Leibniz); optics -- dispersion into colors; Philosophiae
naturalis principia mathematica: methodology, laws of motion, universal gravitation,
two-body problem, Moon's motion including regression, Earth's oblateness, tides,
precession, test of vortex theory; approximate date
63. Halley: role in publication of Principia; Southern Hemisphere stars; second Astronomer
Royal; comet orbits; proper motions of stars
64. Flamsteed: first Astronomer Royal, Royal Greenwich Observatory; Britannic History of
the Heavens (star catalogue)
65. Roemer: speed of light from eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, right ascension and
declination at transit
66. shape of Earth -- oblate vs. prolate, measurements of degree of latitude -- Bouguer and La
Condamine, Maupertuis
67. Bradley: third Astronomer Royal; aberration of starlight; nutation
68. naked-eye instruments -- cross-staff (Levi ben Gerson), nocturnal; Brahe's innovations
69. telescopes -- Galilean refractor, Kepler (astronomical) refractor, and their respective
advantages and disadvantages; reflector (Newton, Cassegrain) and its advantages and
disadvantages; zenith sector, transit telescope
70. chromatic and spherical aberration