- Pretelescopic astronomy
Pretelescopic astronomy is the
science of observingcelestial object s with the naked eye.History
It is believed that the first pretelesopic astronomers were the Chinese due to conclusive evidence such as the "
Gan Shi Xing Jing " (the oldest recordedstar catalog which was produced during the5th century BCE ). This primitive form of astronomy was once considered a rather crucial facet to veryscience and technology in China —so crucial, in fact, that if a Chineseastronomer were to inaccurately predict the occurrence of acomet oreclipse , he would be subsequently ordered to abeheading by the Chinesehierarchy .Notwithstanding the Chinese being considered among the first to document
stellar activity, some of the oldest observatories onEarth are still extant throughout various regions ofKorea ,Egypt ,Great Britain ,Cambodia , et cetera.Although despite the pretelescopic observatories boasted by the previously ennumerated nations, China also boasts its own rather impressive observatories such as the
Beijing Ancient Observatory —an advanced facility constructed during the13th century ; equipped with an array of revolutionary instruments including anarmillary sphere , aquadrant , atheodolite and an astronomical sextant.Introduction of the telescope
Although telescopes existed during the age of many pretelescopic observatories, the apparatus was, indeed, not, during that era, utilised for the fulfillment of astronomical endeavours. For it was not until the introduction of
Galileo Galilei 's "perspicillum" in1609 (a contrivance later amended byJohannes Kepler in his book "Astronomiae Pars Optica ") that led the telescope to serve as the chief instrument in all ulterior astrononomical endeavours.Oldest observatories
The five oldest, extant observatories according to
NASA are as follows:
#Abu Simbel ,Egypt
#Stonehenge ,Great Britain
#Angkor Wat ,Cambodia
#Kokino ,Republic of Macedonia
#Goseck circle ,Germany References
*Hetherington, Barry (1992) "A Chronicle of Pre-Telescopic Astronomy", John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-95942-1
ee also
*
Naked-eye planets
*Chinese astronomy
*Archaeoastronomy External links
* [http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/museum/esim.asp?c=500004 Institute and Museum of the History of Science - Pretelescopic astronomy]
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