Astronomical Phenomena Known to

Astronomers before the Advent

of Telescopes
Which planets are easily seen in the sky without the aid of telescopes?

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are easily seen in the sky without the aid of
telescopes. These planets can be easily confused with stars and are only seen at specific
times of the day. The best time to look for these planets would be before sunrise and
after sunset.

Even before the invention of the telescope, ancient people have already observed
different astronomical phenomena. The most observable objects in the sky are the sun
and moon.

Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations used a primitive version of a sundial, called

gnomon, in systematically observing the motion of the sun. By looking at the shadows
that the gnomon casts, they were able to observe that the sun rises in the eastern part of
the sky, reaches its highest point in midday, and sets in the western part of the sky.

Also, they recorded that the points where the sun rises and sets on the horizon varies
over a year and these variations happen periodically. They observed that these
variations are related to weather and so concluded that seasonal changes in climate
happen during a course of one year.

Phases of the Moon

Ancient people have observed that the moon changes its path and its appearance within
a period of 29.5 days. They observed that the moon changes its appearance from thin
semi-circular disk to full circular disk. These phases of the moon is the basis of ancient
calendars.

Lunar Eclipse

Besides their observation in the different phases of the moon, they also noticed that
there are times when the moon or part of it seemed to be covered by a shadow for a brief
moment. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow on the moon when the
Earth is between the Sun and the Moon.
A phenomenon such as this is known as a lunar eclipse wherein the moon changes into a
dark or blood red color.
 Solar Eclipse

Aside from lunar eclipse, the occurrence of a solar eclipse was also observed. Solar
eclipse occurs when the Moon is in between the Sun and the Earth and the moon
partially or completely blocks out the sun.

The Motion of the Stars

It was also observed that the stars appear to be attached to a celestial sphere that rotates
around an axis in one day. This axis intersects the celestial sphere at a point in the
northern sky and is presently close to the northern star, Polaris. Also, the constellations’
positions in the night sky vary depending on the time of the year.

Visibility of Planets

Astronomers have discovered that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are
planets because they have noticed that the stars are in a fixed position with respect to
each other (like how constellations are always grouped). But there are very bright stars
that change positions periodically. These “stars” do not belong to any group of
constellations in the sky. Thus, they are called “wanderers” or planetes in Greek terms.

Key Points
Even before the advent of the telescopes, ancient astronomers were able to observe the:

 rising and setting of the Sun in the east and the west, respectively,
 point where the Sun rises and sets in the horizon varies in a year,
 phases of the moon,
 lunar eclipse,
 solar eclipse,
 daily and annual motion of the stars, and
 planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

“The Seven Sisters.” The name conveniently suggests that star clusters can be considered
“families” of stars, as stars are known to be born from shared molecular clouds. These families
have to fight against the gravitational pull of the much larger galaxy (and its glamorous city life)
to keep its members within its own gravitational hug, but often many family members escape
and become part of the general galactic population. Smaller star families with weaker
gravitational bonds are often disbanded completely, while larger ones—though they still lose a
number of children—are able to survive and orbit the galaxy together. These are the star
clusters that we enjoy gazing at, and also the ones that we study as astronomers.
Have you ever taken time to gaze at the stars on a clear night, either with a casual eye or a
telescope? If so, you might have seen the famous star cluster, the Pleiades, without even
knowing it! Known as the Seven Sisters from Greek mythology, it is a bright and compact group
of stars. The Pleiades cluster actually contains about one thousand stars of which the seven
brightest ones outshine all the others. This post will introduce you to star clusters like the
Pleiades, the subject of a significant part of the IU Department of Astronomy’s research.