Mankind’s interest in astronomy has started since ancient cultures. Admiration for beautiful celestial objects such as the stars, planets, moon, and sun has developed over the centuries. Even with all the limitations that existed before, humans still want to know what is in the sky — rather than just enjoying the view.
From observing the sky with the naked eye, to finally finding tools that help observation such as telescopes, astronomy is taking shape into the science we continue to study today.
The beginnings of astronomy
Historically, astronomy is the oldest natural science with its origins from religious beliefs, mythology, cosmology, and so on. In the past, ancient cultures considered celestial objects to be gods and spirits. They attribute this to natural events such as rain, drought, seasons, and tides.
So it was believed that astronomers came from among priests. They regard celestial objects and natural events as embodiments of witchcraft. From there astronomy began to take shape, along with the formation of astrology.
The ancient culture that shaped astronomy today.
There are several ancient cultures whose contributions shaped astronomy into astronomy as we know it in modern times.
1. Greece
When it comes to astronomy, civilization or culture, the first thing that comes to mind is Greece. This culture is well-known as a pioneer in this science. The names formulating theories, constructing mathematical equations, and simply examining the universe came from Greece.
One of the most famous Greek scholars was Eratosthenes, who was best known for his breakthroughs in astronomy. His most important contribution was his calculation of the Earth’s circumference.
Eratosthenes did this by walking many kilometers to observe differences in the length of the image at different locations. Remarkably, the results of calculations with the results of modern calculations are only a few hundred or several thousand kilometers apart. This means it’s almost accurate!
Besides, there is also Pythagoras, a philosopher who is known for mathematics but also has a hand in the field of astronomy. He postulated that the earth was round like other celestial bodies.
Pythagoras had the idea after he saw ships that were sailing and then gradually disappeared on the horizon line. He was also the first to suggest that the movement of celestial bodies could be calculated by numbers.
2. Babylon
In 1800 BC, Babylon was one of the first ancient civilizations to successfully document the movements of the moon and sun. They have complete records and details of the positions of celestial bodies even down to their diary, monthly, and yearly records.
3. Maya
Mayan astronomers used to seek clues through celestial bodies. Therefore, they are very interested in studying the movements of the stars and planets.
The Maya at that time researched and documented the movement of these celestial bodies through their image capture tools. Through these observations, they later developed the Mayan calendar which is popular today.
4. Persian
In ancient civilizations, astronomy was very popular during the Persian civilization after the entry of Islam. The famous Persian astronomer at that time was Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi or also known as Azophi. The Andromeda Galaxy was first described in his book, The Book of Fixed Stars, where he revised and corrected some of the earliest concepts of constellations made by Ptolemy, an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer.
5. Egypt
Having the most advanced culture, the contribution of the ancient Egyptians to modern astronomy is significant. Like other ancient cultures, Egypt is also one of those who created myths of gods and spirits to explain astronomical events. Seen from the pyramids and temples that were built based on astronomical positions. The Pyramids of Giza, for example, were built parallel to the East Star which at that time was Thuban, not Polaris as we know it today.
Not only that, the Egyptian tendency towards this knowledge was not only religious but also physical. They observed celestial bodies to predict the arrival of the Nile River flood. The Egyptians also developed a calendar that is very similar to our current calendar, where there are 30 days a month and 365 days divided into 12 months. The difference was that there were 10 days a week and 3 weeks a month.
Ancient Egypt also left Nabta Playa, an astronomical location where a circular rock structure was found, which is thought to be a giant calendar for determining the summer solstice.
Copernican Revolution
In the Renaissance period, astronomy underwent a Copernican revolution thanks to Nicolaus Copernicus who sparked the Heliocentric hypothesis, where the sun is the center of the solar system and the planets revolve around the sun, not around the earth.
At that time, in 1616, Copernicus’ hypothesis was heavily criticized. His book, which included this hypothesis, was categorized as a forbidden book and was even “corrected” by the censorship of the Catholic Church until 1835. The Church considered Copernicus a pagan because his theory contradicted what was written in the Scriptures.
Astronomical advances in the Renaissance
The Copernican struggle was then continued by Johannes Kepler, a mathematician who pursued his knowledge in Austria. He managed to find three Kepler Planetary Laws of Movement, one of which reads: “The planet moves in an elliptical orbit with the sun at one of its focal points”. With Kepler’s discovered laws, he was able to improve on Copernicus’ pre-existing Heliocentric model.
Apart from Kepler, the advancement of Renaissance astronomy was also influenced by Galileo Galilei, one of the first people to use a telescope to observe the sky. He discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons in 1610, which led to his other discoveries. Some of his well-known discoveries are that the moon has craters, sketches sunspots and that Venus shows phases similar to our own.
From there, more and more scholars emerged who were finally able to complete our solar system to its progress in this century.
Conclusion
Since the time of ancient civilizations, mankind has admired the stars and other celestial bodies. The knowledge at that time prompted them to know what the mystery behind these celestial bodies was and where humans stood in the universe.
With the knowledge that existed at that time, the ancient peoples used the naked eye to observe the movements of the earth, moon, sun, and stars, and recorded them and developed their respective calendar systems from there.
Over time, astronomy has grown rapidly despite facing various challenges such as resistance from various parties. However, astronomy managed to advance and continue to develop today into the future.
