Where never Lark, or even Eagle flew
18 January 2008
I learned about the short history of Astronomy today in Spacecraft Dynamics! Prof Lightsey talked about how common people in ancient times used to have a higher competency in astrology then those today. This is because there was nothing much to do at night AND because there's so much light from urban areas today.
We talked about the stars and planets. People used to observe planets because they "wander", or in other words, they moved relative to the stars. Most stars remain in the same celestial positions.. But planets moved. Hence 'planet', or wanderer in Greek!
And Planets not only moved, they had momentarily undergo retrograde motion! (Moving from west to east instead of vice versa) Then you had the Aristotle/Plotemic solar system(Where earth was the centre). Copernicus, a Polish Priest, was asked to investigate, and suggested the Sun-centered model, though it only remained an idea.
However, the Julian Calender(which had 365 days but no months) had a small error of 11min and 14sec each year. So over 1500years, in the 14th century, the holidays weren't right anymore. Winter was happening in "july" and people were wondering. So to correct that, the Pope announced that 2 weeks would essentially "disappear" and the Gregorian Calender was born!
Within 60 years, the Copernicus model was changed. 3 great men changed this. Tycho Brahe, a danish aristocrat founded and was the Head of the Danish(Denmark was way bigger then) Royal Observatory. He kept an accurate observation of Mars for 25 years. He died before the significance of his discovery was found out. Brahme was a flamboyant, social aristocrat blah blah blah.
Johannes Kepler (German), his assistant, was the opposite. Shy and always keeping to himself, he founded the 3 Kepler Laws! All these discovered in the 1600s where they did not calculus or computers to help them with math.
Then came Galileo. Italian Inventer, Popularist, Scientist, he popularised the Copernicus Model. He published his works in Italian(language of the commoners) instead of Latin, which was usually reserved for scholarly works. This allowed a larger audience to read his works. Galileo also perfected Optics. His telescope observed Jupiter, and for the first time in history, observed the large moons of Jupiter going round Jupiter. For that reason, the big moons are called Galilean Moons.
Then Newton was born the year Galileo died. He discovered gravity, and invented calculus, but only as a mathematical tool. Little did he know that Calculus was so useful. In addition, he mathematically solved planetary motion, but didn't thought too much of it. In fact, he thought his theory was wrong because he couldn't not calculate the orbit for the moon! If not for Sir he would not have published his works at all!
So with the Newtonian Laws, the Copernicus model gained acceptance as people could mathematically predict the orbit/motion of the planets. And so ended the short history of Astronomy..
Then in English we learned about the background of Sir William Bradford, one of the immigrants on the Mayflower. He was a Calvinist/Purist/Separtist). Calvinism was a Religion by John Calvin, whom founded a holy city of sorts in Geneva, Switzerland. Wanted even further reformation of the Catholic Church and made up his own church. Bradford, went on the Mayflower, originally bound for Virginia. But went to Plymouth instead as it was a long arduous journey and their ship sucked. Lead extremely pious life. Wanted to escape religious persecution in the Old World and ironically religiously persecuted people in the New World. Interesting huh? =)
TULIPS(Calvinism in a glance)
T - Total Depravity(Everyone's depraved, a sinner guilty of Original Sin aka OS)
U - Unconditional Election (Church is ALWAYS right)
L - Limited redemption(Only Calvinists were the chosen people)
I - Irresistable Grace (of God when he gives you grace by forgiving O.S.)
P - Perseverance of Saints(not R.Catholic Saints. But that people go to heaven after they died)
We talked about the stars and planets. People used to observe planets because they "wander", or in other words, they moved relative to the stars. Most stars remain in the same celestial positions.. But planets moved. Hence 'planet', or wanderer in Greek!
And Planets not only moved, they had momentarily undergo retrograde motion! (Moving from west to east instead of vice versa) Then you had the Aristotle/Plotemic solar system(Where earth was the centre). Copernicus, a Polish Priest, was asked to investigate, and suggested the Sun-centered model, though it only remained an idea.
However, the Julian Calender(which had 365 days but no months) had a small error of 11min and 14sec each year. So over 1500years, in the 14th century, the holidays weren't right anymore. Winter was happening in "july" and people were wondering. So to correct that, the Pope announced that 2 weeks would essentially "disappear" and the Gregorian Calender was born!
Within 60 years, the Copernicus model was changed. 3 great men changed this. Tycho Brahe, a danish aristocrat founded and was the Head of the Danish(Denmark was way bigger then) Royal Observatory. He kept an accurate observation of Mars for 25 years. He died before the significance of his discovery was found out. Brahme was a flamboyant, social aristocrat blah blah blah.
Johannes Kepler (German), his assistant, was the opposite. Shy and always keeping to himself, he founded the 3 Kepler Laws! All these discovered in the 1600s where they did not calculus or computers to help them with math.
Then came Galileo. Italian Inventer, Popularist, Scientist, he popularised the Copernicus Model. He published his works in Italian(language of the commoners) instead of Latin, which was usually reserved for scholarly works. This allowed a larger audience to read his works. Galileo also perfected Optics. His telescope observed Jupiter, and for the first time in history, observed the large moons of Jupiter going round Jupiter. For that reason, the big moons are called Galilean Moons.
Then Newton was born the year Galileo died. He discovered gravity, and invented calculus, but only as a mathematical tool. Little did he know that Calculus was so useful. In addition, he mathematically solved planetary motion, but didn't thought too much of it. In fact, he thought his theory was wrong because he couldn't not calculate the orbit for the moon! If not for Sir
So with the Newtonian Laws, the Copernicus model gained acceptance as people could mathematically predict the orbit/motion of the planets. And so ended the short history of Astronomy..
Then in English we learned about the background of Sir William Bradford, one of the immigrants on the Mayflower. He was a Calvinist/Purist/Separtist). Calvinism was a Religion by John Calvin, whom founded a holy city of sorts in Geneva, Switzerland. Wanted even further reformation of the Catholic Church and made up his own church. Bradford, went on the Mayflower, originally bound for Virginia. But went to Plymouth instead as it was a long arduous journey and their ship sucked. Lead extremely pious life. Wanted to escape religious persecution in the Old World and ironically religiously persecuted people in the New World. Interesting huh? =)
TULIPS(Calvinism in a glance)
T - Total Depravity(Everyone's depraved, a sinner guilty of Original Sin aka OS)
U - Unconditional Election (Church is ALWAYS right)
L - Limited redemption(Only Calvinists were the chosen people)
I - Irresistable Grace (of God when he gives you grace by forgiving O.S.)
P - Perseverance of Saints(not R.Catholic Saints. But that people go to heaven after they died)
:: posted by Christopher, 06:34
