nauka: Archaeoastronomy

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures". Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern astronomy is a scientific discipline, while archaeoastronomy considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other cultures. It is often twinned with ethnoastronomy, the anthropological study of skywatching in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy is also closely associated with historical astronomy,…

Evidence: 41 • authority: 80

<i>East Asian Archaeoastronomy: Historical Records of Astronomical Observations of China, Japan and Korea</i>

Evidence: 41 • authority: 80

Essay Review: East Asian Observations: East-Asian Archaeoastronomy: Historical Records of Astronomical Observations of China, Japan and Korea

Evidence: 35 • authority: 72

Maya astronomy is the study of the Moon, planets, Milky Way, Sun, and astronomical phenomena by the Precolumbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. The Classic Maya in particular developed some of the most accurate pre-telescope astronomy in the world, aided by their fully developed writing system and their positional numeral system, both of which are fully indigenous to Mesoamerica. The Classic Maya understood many astronomical phenomena: for example, their estimate of the length of the synodic month was more accurate than Ptolemy's, and their calculation of the length of the tropical solar year was more accurate than that of the Spanish when the latter first arrived. One of the purposes th…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

The hall of heavenly records. Korean astronomical instruments and clocks 1380–1780

Evidence: — • authority: 80

The Hall of Heavenly Records: Korean Astronomical Instruments and Clocks, 1380-1780 (review)

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is the branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded histor…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Babylonian astronomy was the study or recording of celestial objects during the early history of Mesopotamia. The numeral system used, sexagesimal, was based on 60, as opposed to ten in the modern decimal system. This system simplified the calculating and recording of unusually great and small numbers. During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new empirical approach to astronomy. They began studying and recording their belief system and philosophies dealing with an ideal nature of the universe and began employing an internal logic within their predictive planetary systems. This was an important contribution to astronomy and the philosophy of science, and some m…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to astrophysics. Astrophysics is a science that applies the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena including the universe. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies, rather than their positions or motions in space—what they are, rather than where they are", which is studied in celestial mechanics. Astrophysics is also used when designing and plotting courses for spacecraft.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Astronomy has a long history in the Indian subcontinent, stretching from pre-historic to modern times. Some of the earliest roots of Indian astronomy can be dated to the period of Indus Valley Civilisation or earlier. Astronomy later developed as a discipline of Vedanga, or one of the "auxiliary disciplines" associated with the study of the Vedas dating 1500 BCE or older. The oldest known text is the Vedanga Jyotisha, dated to 1400–1200 BCE (with the extant form possibly from 700 to 600 BCE). Indian astronomy was influenced by Greek astronomy beginning in the 4th century BCE and through the early centuries of the Common Era, for example by the Yavanajataka and the Romaka Siddhanta, a Sanskr…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The history of astronomy focuses on the efforts of civilizations to understand the universe beyond earth's atmosphere. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences, achieving a high level of success in the second half of the first millennium. Astronomy has origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory. Early astronomical records date back to the Babylonians around 1000 BC. There is also astronomical evidence of interest from early Chinese, Central American and North European cultures. Astronomy was used by early cultures for timekeeping, navigation, spiritual and religious practices, and agricultural planning. Anci…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Egyptian astronomy started in prehistoric times, in the Predynastic Period. In the 5th millennium BCE, the stone circles at Nabta Playa may have made use of astronomical alignments. By the time the historical Dynastic Period began in the 3rd millennium BCE, the 365 day period of the Egyptian calendar was already in use, and the observation of stars was important in determining the annual flooding of the Nile. The Egyptian pyramids were carefully aligned towards the pole star, and the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak was aligned on the rising of the midwinter Sun. Astronomy played a considerable part in fixing the dates of religious festivals and determining the hours of night, and temple astrolo…