Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences,dating back to antiquity,with its origins in the religious,mythological,cosmological,calendrical,and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory:vestiges of these are still found in astrology,a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy. It was not completely separated in Europe during the Copernican Revolution starting in 1543. In some cultures,astronomical data was used for astrological prognostication. The study of astronomy has received financial and social support from many institutions,especially the Christian Church,which was its largest source of support between the 12th century to the Enlightenment.
A time standard is a specification for measuring time:either the rate at which time passes or points in time or both. In modern times,several time specifications have been officially recognized as standards,where formerly they were matters of custom and practice. An example of a kind of time standard can be a time scale,specifying a method for measuring divisions of time. A standard for civil time can specify both time intervals and time-of-day.
Timeline of telescopes,observatories,and observing technology.
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city,it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east,Pingdingshan to the southeast,Nanyang to the south,Sanmenxia to the west,Jiyuan to the north,and Jiaozuo to the northeast. As of December 31,2018,Luoyang had a population of 6,888,500 inhabitants with 2,751,400 people living in the built-up area made of the city's five out of six urban districts and Yanshi District,now being conurbated.
An armillary sphere is a model of objects in the sky,consisting of a spherical framework of rings,centered on Earth or the Sun,that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features,such as the ecliptic. As such,it differs from a celestial globe,which is a smooth sphere whose principal purpose is to map the constellations. It was invented separately first in ancient China during the 4th century BC and ancient Greece during the 3rd century BC,with later uses in the Islamic world and Medieval Europe.
Yi Xing,born Zhang Sui,was a Chinese astronomer,mathematician,inventor,mechanical engineer,philosopher,and Buddhist monk of the Tang dynasty (618–907). His astronomical celestial globe featured a liquid-driven escapement,the first in a long tradition of Chinese astronomical clockworks.
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang Dynasty,being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The Ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300BCE,as Chinese star names later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions have been found on oracle bones unearthed at Anyang,dating back to the mid-Shang Dynasty. The core of the "mansion" system also took shape around this period,by the time of King Wu Ding.
Guo Shoujing,courtesy name Ruosi (若思),was a Chinese astronomer,hydraulic engineer,mathematician,and politician who lived during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). The later Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591–1666) was so impressed with the preserved astronomical instruments of Guo that he called him "the Tycho Brahe of China." Jamal ad-Din cooperated with him.
The Jantar Mantar,Jaipur is a collection of 19 astronomical instruments built by the Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II,the founder of Jaipur,Rajasthan. The monument was completed in 1734. It features the world's largest stone sundial,and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is near City Palace and Hawa Mahal. The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye. The observatory is an example of the Ptolemaic positional astronomy which was shared by many civilizations.
Jantar Mantar is located in the modern city of New Delhi. “Jantar Mantar”literally means “instruments for measuring the harmony of the heavens”. It consists of 13 architectural astronomy instruments. The site is one of five built by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur,from 1723 onwards,revising the calendar and astronomical tables. Jai Singh,born in 1688 into a royal Rajput family that ruled the regional kingdom,was born into an era of education that maintained a keen interest in astronomy. There is a plaque fixed on one of the structures in the Jantar Mantar observatory in New Delhi that was placed there in 1910 mistakenly dating the construction of the complex to the year 1710. Later research,though,suggests 1724 as the actual year of construction. Its height is 723 feet (220 m).
Astronomy has long history in 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 9,000 BCE or older as Ancient Dwarka dated 9,000BCE to 17,000 BCE Old. The oldest known text is the Vedanga Jyotisha,dated to 1400–1200 BCE.
Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It deals with detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics,astrophysics,and computer science,including fluid dynamics,plasma physics including magnetohydrodynamics,seismology,particle physics,atomic physics,nuclear physics,stellar evolution,space physics,spectroscopy,radiative transfer,applied optics,signal processing,computer vision,computational physics,stellar physics and solar astronomy.
Taosi is an archaeological site in Xiangfen County,Shanxi,China. Taosi is considered to be part of the late phase of the Longshan culture in southern Shanxi,also known as the Taosi phase.
Islamic astronomy comprises the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world,particularly during the Islamic Golden Age,and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East,Central Asia,Al-Andalus,and North Africa,and later in the Far East and India. It closely parallels the genesis of other Islamic sciences in its assimilation of foreign material and the amalgamation of the disparate elements of that material to create a science with Islamic characteristics. These included Greek,Sassanid,and Indian works in particular,which were translated and built upon.
The Zhoubi Suanjing is one of the oldest Chinese mathematical texts. "Zhou" refers to the ancient Zhou dynasty;"Bi" literally means "thigh",but in the book refers to the gnomon of a sundial. The book is dedicated to astronomical observation and calculation. Suan Jing or "classic of arithmetics" were appended in later time to honor the achievement of the book in mathematics.
Maragheh observatory was an astronomical observatory established in 1259 CE under the patronage of the Ilkhanid Hulagu and the directorship of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi,a Persian scientist and astronomer. Located in the heights west of Maragheh,which is today situated in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran,it was once considered "the most advanced scientific institution in the Eurasian world".
Wei Pu was a Chinese astronomer and politician of the Song Dynasty. He was born a commoner,but eventually rose to prominence as an astronomer working for the imperial court at the capital of Kaifeng. Wei became a trusted colleague of the famous Song polymath statesman and scientist Shen Kuo,who served as the head official for the Bureau of Astronomy,and worked on various projects with Wei Pu.
Dengfeng is a county-level city of Henan Province,South Central China,it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou. In ancient times,it was known as Yangcheng.
The Kuffner observatory is one of two telescope-equipped public astronomical observatories situated in Austria's capital,Vienna. It is situated in the West of the city's Ottakring district,on the slope of the Gallitzinberg at 302 m altitude. Originally a private research institution,it was converted into an educational astronomy facility after World War II as buildings and city lights had encroached to a degree that severely hampered scientific nightsky observations. Today the main tasks of the observatory consist in public education on astronomy,operating and preserving the historical equipment,and minor projects in scientific astronomy.
The Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice is an astronomical measurement device located in the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris,France. It is a gnomon,a device designed to cast a shadow on the ground in order to determine the position of the sun in the sky. In early modern times,other gnomons were also built in several Italian and French churches in order to better calculate astronomical events. Those churches are Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence,San Petronio in Bologna,and the Church of the Certosa in Rome. These gnomons ultimately fell into disuse with the advent of powerful telescopes.
