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There is no uncertainty that astronomy is the oldest science and there is also no hesitation that astronomy was being studied by everyone, not only the wise men, thousands and thousands of years ago.
We do not understand exactly why they did it, but we can surmise that early man noticed a correlation between the weather and the stars, which were themselves not fully understood, of course.
Early man, probably even as far back as Neanderthal man, noticed the relationship between the weather and herd movements and crop growth, or at least fruit and nuts on local trees, if they did not have planted crops.
This means that people could see a connection between the stars and food availability. This relationship was probably ritualized into some sort of religion like early Wicca. Therefore, the stars became a very important part of the lives of every single person and it is likely that astrology and astronomy were widely intermixed by the average person.
However, there were also people who did not only use the stars as some vast celestial clock and who tried to make sense of the whole shebang. I am going to narrate below, eight of the most important dates or years in the history of astronomy before Christ walked on the Earth. In no way forget that they had nothing but an abacus to do there calculations and no telescopes, which came about two thousand years later.
585 BC: Thales of Miletus (c. 625- c. 547), a Greek, predicted a solar eclipse in Asia Minor purely on the basis of his observations and calculations. It was not a lucky guess!
c. 400 BC: the astronomer Oenopedes (5th. century). also a Greek, announces that the Earth is tilted on its axis with respect to the Sun.
352 BC: the Chinese report what they called a ‘guest star’, a supernova, which was the earliest reported sighting.
340 BC: The astronomer, Kidinnu (b. Babylon c. 379 BC) discovers the precession of the Equinoxes, ie the apparent change in the position of the stars caused by the Earth’s wobbling on its axis.
c. 300 BC: a ‘committee’ of Chinese astronomers compile star maps of the visible universe.
c. 240 BC: Chinese astronomers observe and make notes about Halley’s Comet. Also Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – c.194 BC), a Greek, correctly calculate the Earth’s dimensions.
165 BC: Chinese astronomers notice sunspots for the first time.
c. 130 BC: the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (b. 147 BC), a Greek, correctly calculates the distance to the Earth’s Moon and also rediscovers the precession of the Equinoxes.
You will see from the dates above that obviously not everyone let nature and the stars rule their lives, as the comon farmer or hunter did. Some men actually put pen to paper, but before pen and paper even existed, and tried to work out ‘why these manifestations occurred?’.
These people must have been remarkable men to have worked these measurements out by calculation, observation by the naked eye and rationalization alone.
Astronomy is an interesting science to most people because it is stuffed with many fun astronomy facts. Everything from the size and temperature of our own star, the Sun, to the make-up of distant planets has been recorded. All of this information can be retold to entertain and enlighten your friends.
The Sun is a fantastic source of astronomy fun facts. Our own star, which supplies us with all our heat and light is between 91 and 94.5 million miles from Earth. It’s not that nobody has measured the exact distance. It’s because the Earth revolves around the Sun in an elliptical, uneven, orbit, so the distance varies depending on where the Earth is situated in that orbit.
The Sun is only an average size star, yet it’s size is another terrific source of astronomy fun facts. As normal as it is, it accounts for about 98% of all the matter in our solar system. Even with the massive planet of Jupiter on our side, we’re still only a small 2% of non Sun material.
It would take the diameter of about 100 Earths to stretch across this average Sun. The solar winds created by the Sun extends to about 50 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Or put another way, those solar winds reach out about 50 AU’s. An AU being the distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is quite an fantastic fact, isn’t it?.
What about astronomy fun facts that don’t have anything at all to do with the Sun then? How about the Moon? It’s the only object that man has walked on except the Earth so far. And one man actually travelled to the Moon but has never left it. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker loved the Moon but was not found acceptable as an astronaut. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Moon by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1999.
There are many more astronomy fun facts about the Moon. It’s where what may become the oldest footprint known to man. Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind left a footprint or shoe print in the Moon’s dust that will likely still be visible in 10 million years time.
Lots of people, in fact about 13% of those polled in 1988, still thought the Moon is made of cheese. And finally, the suits worn by the Moon-walking astronauts weighed 180 pounds on Earth but only 30 pounds on the Moon, because of the Moon’s reduced gravity. Talk about losing weight, eh?
Astronomy fun facts aren’t limited to our close astronomical neighbours. Looking at stars is like looking into the past. Some of the stars we see nowadays in the night sky are so far away that their light takes a million years to reach Earth. Some of the stars you see may literally be images of stars a million years old that aren’t even there in the present. There are over 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe. That’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros. And all their planets. The number is really quite staggering.
There are thousands of astronomy fun facts that we could relate. But, unfortunately, this article can not be that long. So, please, walk out there at night, look upwards and learn more about astronomy for yourself.
It is common to hear people say that time flies and it is true. I have put together a list of screen idols who passed away ten years ago. When I began researching this list of screen idols’ obituaries, I was surprised to read who had died and how old they had become when they died. I have listed them by date. Doesn’t time fly?
Hedy Lamarr: 86, Viennese born motion picture star, whose seductive beauty tempted all the male stars of the 1920′s and 30′s. Credited as co-inventor (with composer George Antheil) of a patented device for radio-controlled missiles. Old age, Orlando, Fla., Jan 19, 2000.
Durwood Kirby: 88, Kentucky born TV personality, announcer and foil to Garry Moore. Host of ‘Candid Camera’. Cause undisclosed, Fort Myers, Fla., March 15, 2000.
Claire Trevor: 91, Brooklyn-born film actress. The brash moll in ‘Stagecoach’ and the Oscar-winning alcoholic singer in ‘Key Largo’. She played in nearly 70 films. Of respiratory disease, Newport Beach, Calif., April 8, 2000.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr: 90, U.S. actor and producer. He created a picture career despite being under his father’s shadow. Best known for ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘The Prisoner Of Zenda’ in the 1930′s. Cause undisclosed. New York, May 7, 2000.
Sir John Gielgud: 96, legendary British actor. Long time star of stage and screen in the UK and US. Remarkable Shakespearean actor. Won an Oscar for ‘Arthur’. Old age, Aylesbury, UK, May 21, 2000.
Walter Matthau: 79, U.S. actor. Best known as Oscar Madison in the ‘Odd Couple’. He was everybody’s favourite grumpy old man. Of a heart attack, Santa Monica, Calif., July 1, 2000
Sir Alec Guinness: 86, renowned British actor. Best known for Oscar-winning performance as the mad colonel in ‘Bridge Over The River Kwai’ and Obi-Wan Kanobi in ‘Star Wars’. Very versatile actor. Old age, West Sussex, UK, Aug. 5, 2000.
Loretta Young: 87, U.S. motion picture star from Hollywood’s golden age of the 1930′s and 40′s. Oscar winner for ‘The Farmer’s Daughter’ (1947). Emmy winner for ‘The Loretta Young Show’ (1954-63) on TV. Of ovarian cancer, Los Angeles, Aug. 12, 2000.
Richard Farnsworth: 80, U.S. actor. In films for 60 years, first as a stunt man, then at 57 as an actor. Twice nominated for an Academy Award including ‘The Straight Story’. Suicide, Lincoln, N. Mexico, Oct. 6, 2000.
Steve Allen: 78, U.S. comedian, entertainer and songwriter, who pioneered the late-night TV show format of the. He wrote over 5,000 songs, including ‘This Could Be The Start Of Something Big’ and ‘Impossible’. An apparent heart attack in Los Angeles, Calif. Oct. 31, 2000.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with custom wall calendars If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars
Previous to their implementation of the Western solar calendar scheme, the Chinese almost exclusively followed their own lunar calendar for determining the times of planting and harvesting and festival days. Although people in China today use the Western calendar for almost all business, governmental and practical matters of daily life, the old system still serves as the basis for working out numerous recurring holidays. This coexistence of two calendar schemes has long been acknowledged by the people of China.
However, this does not only apply to China, it also occurs in most other Eastern countries, like Thailand, and most Arabic countries.
A lunar month is determined by measuring the period of time required for the moon to finish its full cycle of 29 and a half days, a standard that makes the lunar year a full eleven days shorter than its solar counterpart. This disparity is corrected every 19 years by the addition of seven lunar months.
The 12 lunar months are further divided into 24 solar divisions characterized by the four seasons and times of heat and cold, all of which bear a close relationship to the yearly cycle of agricultural work.
The Chinese calendar – very much like the Hebrew calendar- is a mixture of the solar and lunar calendars in that it attempts to have its years concur with the tropical year and its months agree with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar.
For example, an ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When working out what a Chinese year will be like, one must make a couple of astronomical calculations.
First of all, you have to determine the dates for the new moons. In these cases, a new Moon is the completely black Moon (that is to say, when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun), not the first visible crescent, as is used by the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is then the first day of a new month.
The reason why the majority of countries which had their own calendars had to drop them in favour of the Western, Julian calendar that we use today, is business. First the British and then the Americans ran international business and they used the Julian calendar.Anyone who wanted to work with them had to follow suit. This is why national policy often differs from local custom in Third World countries.
The government desires to deal on the International markets, but the ordinary family in the country can not. So, the government adopted the Julian calendar but the people only pay lip service to it. I live in Thailand and people here do not even use the 24 hour day divided into two halves. Their day has four sections of six hours each and the first part starts at 6AM, not midnight. Therefore, they have four 4 o’clocks a day, for example but no 7 o’clocks. They are also 543 years ahead of us, although this is more common, for example in Muslim countries.
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