AST 3043 STUDY GUIDE 1

1. Preface to Hoskin: wretched subjects; normal science, paradigm shift
2. celestial sphere -- celestial poles, and equator and relation to Earth's poles and equator
3. altazimuth coordinates -- horizon and cardinal points (NESW), zenith, altitude and azimuth definitions and units, celestial meridian; daily (diurnal) motion in different parts of sky and different latitudes, altitude of celestial pole = latitude; cause
4. Sun's annual motion: evidence, path = ecliptic; equinoxes and solstices, their meanings and their approximate dates; Sun's noon altitude, rising and setting points at equinoxes and solstices
5. equatorial coordinates: definitions of right ascension and declination, units
6. sidereal year vs. tropical year, precession and its effects; heliacal rising of stars, interval
7. Moon's phases, approximate rising and setting times; its motion relative to stars and ecliptic, ascending and descending nodes; synodic, sidereal, and nodical (draconic) months, relative lengths and why different, regression of nodes, lunar major and minor standstills, and relations of nodes to equinoxes for both of those
8. Stonehenge: prehistoric, megalithic; main phases: I with outer part (ditch, Aubrey holes, station stones), III with inner part (Sarsen Circle, trilithons, X and Y holes); types of possible alignments, Stonehenge Decoded and Aubrey holes for eclipse prediction; probable use
9. Newgrange: prehistoric; alignment, archaeology and probable use
10. Cuzco -- Inca capital; Coricancha alignments; Pleiades heliacal rising and significance for calendar; ceque system, huacas, social and spatial organization, and calendar; Cerro Picchu stone columns and planting, antizenith (nadir) sunsets
11. Machu Picchu -- Torreon alignments
12. inferior and superior planets, configurations, transits, motions on celestial sphere and retrograde motion, synodic vs. sidereal periods, heliacal rising of planets
13. Maya -- types of building alignments, vigesimal number system, calendars and astronomical connections; Dresden Codex and its importance, astronomical connections; heliacal rising of Venus and its significance, interval for planetary heliacal rising
14. Native American astronomy -- Bighorn Medicine Wheel alignment types; Hopi Soyal ceremony and winter solstice sunset, significance
15. Celestial navigation by Pacific Islanders -- rising and setting of stars in tropics
16. Development of calendars -- lunar, solar (annual); problem of combining (lunisolar), empirical intercalation and intercalation by rule; 8-yr cycle, Metonic cycle
17. Egyptian calendars, heliacal rising of Sirius, administrative or civil calendar; Sothis period; decans, time of night, modern connection; pyramid alignments; astronomy and mathematics compared with Babylonians
18. early Chinese astronomy -- lifa and tianwen as state functions; lunisolar calendar; recognition of periodicities, e.g. the Jupiter cycle, Moon-stations (which interval), etc.; astrology: idea of disorder in heavens caused by misrule or disruptions on Earth; Shi Shen, early star catalogue; Guo Shoujing -- length of tropical year, obliquity, random vs. systematic error; extensive records of comets (including Halley's) and "guest stars" (novae and supernovae) like that of 1054 AD
19. early Babylonians -- cuneiform, sexagesimal number system and modern connections
20. ecliptic coordinates: definitions of celestial latitude and longitude, including as used by Babylonians; units
21. Babylonians -- earliest document Venus tablet, observation of Moon and planets over extended period for astrology (state, not individual), recognition of periodicities in lunar and planetary phenomena, creation of ephemerides; variable motion in longitude of Sun, Moon, planets approximated, including zigzag (Kidinnu)
22. eclipses -- shadows of Earth, Moon; solar, lunar, Moon's phase, visibility, eclipse seasons; saros and Saros-Canon, eclipse forecasts; predictions of lunar eclipses, "broken" zigzag for Moon's motion in latitude
23. Thales -- cosmos as object of contemplation; flat Earth under domed sky; solar eclipse "prediction"
24. Pythagoras and his school: numerology; spherical Earth, Moon, Sun; "music of the spheres;" Philolaus's cosmology
25. Plato -- distrust of appearances, use reason to find forms; image of concentric spheres with planets
26. Eudoxus -- mathematical model: concentric spheres centered on Earth, hippopede; problems
27. Aristotle -- dichotomy between sublunary (terrestrial) and superlunary (celestial), elements and natural motions in each, immutability of superlunary, violent or forced motion; claims about comets and meteors; geocentric physical model based on Eudoxus; arguments for spherical Earth; argument of fall; argument of parallax against Earth's orbiting Sun; approximate date
28. Heraclides -- Earth's rotation; Mercury and Venus orbit Sun
29. Aristarchus -- Hellenistic astronomy; relative distances of Sun and Moon; dimensions of Sun and Moon relative to Earth; heliocentric model; approximate date
30. Eratosthenes -- circumference of Earth
31. Hipparchus -- star catalogue with celestial longitudes and latitudes, magnitudes; discovery of precession; inequality of seasons and Sun's orbit; Moon's orbit; Moon's geocentric parallax; accurate lengths of various kinds of months and of year; approximate date
32. Ptolemy -- geocentric model using epicycles (Apollonius), equant and other problems; Matematike syntaxis (Mathematical Compilation ) and Tetrabiblos: tables for predicting positions of Sun, Moon, planets; refinement and extension of Hipparchus's work, including geocentric parallaxes of Sun and Moon; astrology; Handy Tables and Planetary Hypotheses; approximate date
33. naked-eye instruments -- gnomon, zenith tube; backsight and foresight, baseline and accuracy; Guo Shoujing's observatory; armillary sphere (equatorial and zodiacal); astrolabe, mural quadrant, triquetrum