If you have ever wanted to understand the basic principles of astronomy
and celestial movements, you should read this book. Using pictures of
the sky observed from different places on Earth, as well as drawings of
ancient astronomical methods and tools, Prof. Sun Kwok tells this story
in an entertaining and fascinating way.
Since the beginning of human civilization, people have wondered about
the structure of the cosmos and our place in the Universe. More than
2,000 years ago, our ancestors knew that the seasons were unequal, the
Earth was an unattached object floating in space, and stars existed that
they could not see. From celestial observations, they concluded that the
Earth was round. Using simple tools and mathematics, ancient astronomers
accurately determined the sizes of the Earth and Moon, the distance to
the Moon, and the lengths of the months and year.
With a clever device called the armillary sphere, Greek astronomers
could predict the times of sunrise and sunset on any day of the year, at
any place on Earth. They developed sophisticated mathematical models to
forecast Mars' motions hundreds of years into the future.
Find out how ancient observers achieved these remarkable feats. With
minimal use of mathematics, this book retraces the footsteps of our
ancestors, explains their intellectual journeys in simple terms, and
explores the philosophical implications of these discoveries.
