Ancient structures like the Stonehenge in the Salisbury Plain in England were built according to precise astronomical alignments. It is an ancient place of Celtic worship which also seems to have been a sophisticated celestial observatory.
Egypt, China and Chaldea in Mesopotamia were the most important centres of ancient astronomy. The Egyptians built their pyramids by observing the stars. The Chinese observed important astronomical events such as eclipses and supernovae.
- In 2136 BC they observed an eclipse of the sun.
- In 1054 AD they observed the supernova in the constellation of Taurus. Later astronomers discovered that the Crab Nebula is a remnant of this supernova.
Unlike the other cultures, the Greeks tried to explain what they saw in a logical manner rather than merely observing it. Plato described his theory about a finite universe floating on an infinite space. His student Aristotle discovered that the Earth was spherical in nature by observing the curved shadow of the Earth on the moon's surface during a lunar eclipse.
Ptolemy who is best remembered for his book Almagest described Earth as the supreme centre of the universe, hence introducing the geocentric model. Aristarchus of Samos said that the Sun was the centre of the universe but his ideas were not accepted. This heliocentric model of Aristarchus was further established by the Polish astronomer, Sir Nicholas Copernicus. By using his naked eye observations of the five planets that were known to exist at that time, he revolutionised cosmology by placing the Sun at the centre of the Universe.
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| Pyramids of Egypt |
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| Ptolemy |
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| Heliocentric model |
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| Stonehenge |
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