Claudius Ptolemy
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The Universe: A Timeline of Discovery
Aaaaand she’s back! Sorry for the delay — school had me burnt out! Consider this: humanity has existed for just a few thousand years, and for most of that time, our existence has been constrained to one little blue mote…
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The Copernican Revolution
Nicolaus Copernicus lived from 1473-1543, a time when rebellion against the Church was at its height. And unfortunately for the astronomy of the time, it had gotten inextricably tied up with Christian teachings. In that time, heaven and hell weren’t…
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The Ptolemaic Universe
Claudius Ptolemy lived about five centuries after the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s time. Aristotle’s model for the universe — the first geocentric model, with Earth at the center — was still widely accepted, and Ptolemy sought to improve it. Ptolemy was one…
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Stars: Naming and Brightness
Meet Pegasus, and the constellations surrounding it. As I said in my last post, constellations are just regions of space. Yes, they are named after mythical beasts and ancient queens, but for scientific purposes, all that matters are the regions…
