Astronomy
Ptolemy proposed his Geocentric theory in the 2nd century A.D. What he did was just an elaboration of already existing idea that earth was in the center of universe, proposed by Aristotle, in to a complete cosmological model.
According to his theory, the earth stood at the center, surrounded by some eight spheres, the Moon, the Sun, the stars, and the five other planets known till the time: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
The first sphere supposedly carried Moon followed by Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and some fixed stars--eighth sphere--in the remaining seven spheres. The outer most sphere that is supposed to carry the so-called fixed stars, rotate across the sky; the stars thus remain fixed with respect to earth--according to him.
What about the region beyond the eighth sphere ?
He didn't explained that, as there is no way one can observe beyond stars--no telescope and no Galileo.
Does this theory provided a reasonably accurate system for predicting the positions of heavenly bodies in the sky ?
Yes, it was, but got one serious flaw: to predict the positions correctly, Ptolemy had to make an assumption that the moon followed a path that sometimes brought it twice as close to the earth as at other times. And that meant that the moon ought sometimes to appear twice as big as at other times!
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Astronomy
Ptolemy's geocentric Theory
Ptolemy proposed his Geocentric theory in the 2nd century A.D. What he did was just an elaboration of already existing idea that earth was in the center of universe, proposed by Aristotle, in to a complete cosmological model.
According to his theory, the earth stood at the center, surrounded by some eight spheres, the Moon, the Sun, the stars, and the five other planets known till the time: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
The first sphere supposedly carried Moon followed by Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and some fixed stars--eighth sphere--in the remaining seven spheres. The outer most sphere that is supposed to carry the so-called fixed stars, rotate across the sky; the stars thus remain fixed with respect to earth--according to him.
What about the region beyond the eighth sphere ?
He didn't explained that, as there is no way one can observe beyond stars--no telescope and no Galileo.
Does this theory provided a reasonably accurate system for predicting the positions of heavenly bodies in the sky ?
Yes, it was, but got one serious flaw: to predict the positions correctly, Ptolemy had to make an assumption that the moon followed a path that sometimes brought it twice as close to the earth as at other times. And that meant that the moon ought sometimes to appear twice as big as at other times!
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Have you ever given a thought that how our Universe came into be? Our Universe was created in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded at a rapid state and then cooled and it is expanding even now today.The fact is interesting isn't it? When...
- Galileo Astronomy
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy in the late 1500's. He first became a math teacher even though he had no degree in the subject, and here he began his path to greatness. A baby step towards Galileo Galilei astronomy was when he demonstrated to students...
- The Apparent Position Of Stars. Constellations
At what point would the Earth's surface, we are, we always think that all the heavenly bodies are to us at the same distance on the inner surface of a sphere, which is commonly called the firmament, or just air. Day of the sky, if it is not covered...
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