Home
Ancient Greeks
Scientific Revolution
Observations
Concepts
Miscellaneous
Welcome to Historical Astronomy. This site offers a brief overview of the historical development of astronomy. It focuses on the ancient Greeks, from Pythagoras to Ptolemy and then on the scientific revolution from Copernicus to Kepler, with a little bit about Newton. I made this site so that my physics students could have access to notes to topics we study in class. If time ever permits, I will add extra material.
The navigational links listed above are on (I think) every page in this site. The Ancient Greeks and Scientific Revolution links each go to very brief summaries of the main people discussed in class - with follow up links to more detailed descriptions of who they were and why they were important. The Observations link is a single page with a summary of the astronomical observations that people were trying to explain. (This was the main stuff from the first lecture in class.) The Concepts page is a list of links to pages that go into the details of the concepts that we talked about in class. Some of these pages are not done, but most of them are. The Miscellaneous page is exactly that - links outside this site to particularly good or helpful sites for a few random topics.
Every year I get a little bit more done on the site. While there are certainly some things missing or incomplete, it does have most of the information discussed in class. If you are ever unclear on a topic, and you can't find any useful information on this site, don't hesitate to come see me for extra help.
Any mistakes in these pages are my own fault, and I apologize in advance. If something is wrong, please let me know at dave@themcclungs.net so that I can fix it.