Announcements
•First exam is two weeks from Thursday
(February 18). Will cover chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.
Sample questions have been posted. Format will
be 15 MC’s (3 points each) and 3 essays (18
points each) from a list of 5. The exam will be
open book but not open note.
•The Dark Sky Observing Night tonight is
cancelled. Next Dark Sky Night is scheduled for
Monday night. Set-up starts 45 minutes before
the start time so meet here at 6:45pm.
Cancellation notice, if needed, will be posted on
APSU Astronomy website by 5:00 that day.
The fall of Rome opened a “Dark
Age” for astronomy in Europe
Anicius Boethius (Saint Severinus)
attempted to translate many of the
works of the Greeks into Latin in the
4th & 5th centuries but was executed
by a tyrant after completing only a
few works on logic
Calcidius translated many of the
works of Plato
Plato’s Timaeus outlines the
cosmological myth of ancient Greece
The best “text” on astronomy was
by Martianus Capella
The Marriage of
Philology and Mercury
Astronomy was one of the
seven liberal arts
Martianus
Capella actually
proposed
Mercury and
Venus went
around the Sun
Eventually, Greek is no longer
taught and the original works
are lost
Most of Europe becomes more concerned with the
Crusades than with learning
The need for an accurate calendar
kept astronomers employed
The Venerable Bede, an
English monk and
“timekeeper” worked out
the date for Easter for
532 years (28 Metonic
Cycles of 19 years)
The “Problem” of the date of Easter
wouldn’t be solved until 1582
Gerbert of Aurillac
Brought the astrolabe to Europe through his visits to Spain
Later established center of learning at Reims
By the 12th Century translators
were starting to translate many of
the ancient works into Latin
Gerard of
Cremona is
credited with
translating over
seventy works
including the
Toledan Tables of
al-Zarqali
The Europeans even began to
invent their own astronomical
instruments
Invented by Levi ben
Gerson around 1300,
the cross-staff allows
measurement of the
angle between two
objects
With more instruments came more
sophistication
As measurements improved, there was a
need to recalculate the astronomical
tables using the Almagest
Alphonsine Tables commissioned by King
Alphonse of Spain in the 14th Century
The invention
of the printing
press brings a
revolution to
astronomy
Reliable texts on astronomy could be
produced
Frontispiece to Regiomontanus’
Epitome of the Almagest first
published in 1496
As more texts became available to
more people, questions arose
Aristotle’s explanation for
the flight of an arrow was
patently absurd
As they began to question Aristotle’s explanations for
terrestrial motion, so too they questioned his (and
other Greeks) explanation for celestial motions