How Astronomy Has Developed

The early watchers of the skies picked out teams of stars that gave the impression to be in combination within the sky, or that have been organized in shapes that have been simple to keep in mind. They referred to as those teams of stars constellations and gave them names, naming them for the gods of their mythology, or for animals or characters of their favourite tales. We nonetheless use their historical names for those constellations. The historical astronomers noticed, too, that many of the stars looked as if it would go through the skies in combination, as if they have been caught into the sky as a jewel is embedded in steel.

These they referred to as the “fixed” stars. One of those stars by no means moved in any respect, however stayed in a single position on to the north; so this was once referred to as the North Star, or the Pole Star, and for hundreds of years it has helped navigators to lead their ships at sea. The early astronomers additionally spotted that 5 of the “stars” weren't fastened. Sometimes they rose in a single a part of the sky, now and again in every other. These our bodies they referred to as planets, which means “wanderers.” Today we all know that those planets don't seem to be stars in any respect.

They are our bodies very similar to our Earth, and revolve across the solar. There are different planets, however most effective 5 may also be noticed with the bare eye. These are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. You can learn extra approximately them in the item at the sun device . About 100 years after the delivery of Jesus, an Egyptian scientist named Ptolemy wrote a e-book referred to as the Almagest during which he set down the whole thing that was once then identified approximately astronomy, and likewise his personal concepts on the topic. Ptolemy believed that the Earth was once the middle of the universe, with the solar and stars revolving round it. We recognize now that this isn't so, however for greater than 1,one hundred years astronomers adopted Ptolemy’s educating. Then an excellent astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus, of Poland, challenged Ptolemy’s thought. Copernicus confirmed that the Earth and the opposite planets in reality revolve across the solar. We recognize now that that is actual.