ANCIENT ASTRONOMY

GREEKS
• The Greeks are very much noted for their major contributions in
different fields. They were not only great philosophers. They were
great scientists and mathematicians as well.
• It was in Greece that the Golden Age of early astronomy was
centered. Being philosophers, the Greeks used philosophical
arguments to explain the natural events happening around them
including the movements of the stars and other heavenly bodies.
But they were also observers. They made use of their observational
data to explain certain events. They were the ones who measured
the sizes and the distances of the sun and the moon using the
basics of geometry and trigonometry which they also developed.
• The early Greeks had a geocentric view of
the earth. For them, it was the center of
the universe; hence, a motionless sphere.
The sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn orbited the Earth.
• The Greeks also believed that stars
traveled daily around the earth. However,
they all stayed in a transparent, hollow
sphere located beyond the planets. They
called this sphere as the celestial sphere.
 The Shape of the Earth is Round
In the tune of “The Wheels on the bus go round and round”
By: X-handi B. Fallarna
The shape of the Earth is round, just round
Round, just round
Round, just round
The shape of the Earth is round, just round
All this time
The Greek philosophers had thought it’s flat,
Some thought it’s round, some thought it’s round
The Greek philosophers had thought it’s flat,
But they got it wrong!
North Star, eclipse, and sailing ship,
Moon’s shadow from Earth’s relationship
These conclude that the Earth is round
All this time!
 KEY TERMS

 Oblate spheroid: the shape of the Earth. It has bulging equator

and squeezed poles.
 KEY TERMS

 Solstice: either of the two times in the year, the summer solstice
and the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its highest or lowest
point in the sky at noon, marked by the longest and shortest days.
KEY TERMS

 Eclipse: an obscuring of the

light from one celestial body by the
passage of another between it and
the observer or between it and its
source of illumination.
KEY TERMS

 Heliocentrism: the astronomical model in which the

Earth and planets revolve around the Sun.
 Geocentrism: any theory of the structure of the solar
system (or the universe) in which Earth is assumed to be
at the center of it all.
• Have you ever wondered what the philosophers in ancient astronomy thought about
the shape of the Earth?
LEARN ABOUT IT!
• Around 500 B.C., most Greeks believed that the Earth was round, not flat. It was
Pythagoras and his pupils who were first to propose a spherical Earth.
• In 500 to 430 B.C., Anaxagoras further supported Pythagoras' proposal through
his observations of the shadows that the Earth cast on the Moon during a lunar
eclipse. He observed that during a lunar eclipse, the Earth's shadow was reflected
on the Moon's surface. The shadow reflected was circular.
• Around 340 B.C., Aristotle listed several arguments for a spherical Earth which
included the positions of the North Star, the shape of the Moon and the Sun, and
the disappearance of the ships when they sail over the horizon.
• North Star
• The North Star was believed to be at a fixed position in the sky. However, when the Greeks
traveled to places nearer the equator, like Egypt, they noticed that the North Star is closer to the
horizon.
• The Shape of the Sun and the Moon
• Aristotle argued that if the Moon and the Sun were both spherical, then perhaps, the Earth was
also spherical.
• Disappearing Ships
• If the Earth was flat, then a ship traveling away from an observer should become smaller and
smaller until it disappeared. However, the Greeks observed that the ship became smaller and
then its hull disappeared first before the sail as if it was being enveloped by the water until it
completely disappeared.
THE SIZE OF THE
SPHERICAL EARTH
• Ancient scholars tried to provide proof of a
spherical Earth and its circumference through
calculations. It was Eratosthenes who gave the
most accurate size during their time.
• While he was working at the Library of Alexandria
in Northern Egypt, he received correspondence
from Syene in Southern Egypt which stated that
a vertical object did not cast any shadow at
noontime during the summer solstice. But this
was not the case in Alexandria where, at noon
time during the summer solstice, a vertical object
still casts a shadow.
• These observations could only mean that the
Sun, during this time in Alexandria, was not
directly overhead.
• Eratosthenes then determined the angle the Sun
made with the vertical direction by measuring the
shadow that a vertical stick cast. He found out
that in Alexandria, the Sun makes an angle of
7.2° from the vertical while 0° in Syene. To
explain the difference, he hypothesized that the
light rays coming from the sun are parallel, and
the Earth is curved.
• From his measurements, he computed the
circumference of the Earth to be approximately
250 000 stadia (a stadium is a unit of
measurement used to describe the size of a
typical stadium at the time), about 40 000
kilometers.
• Our understanding about the different heavenly bodies
can be credited to the important findings of the
following Greek astronomers:
a. Anaxagoras

• Anaxagoras was able to explain what

causes the phases of the moon.
• According to him, the moon shone only
by reflected sunlight. Since it is a
sphere, only half of it illuminated at a
time. This illuminated part that is visible
from the earth changes periodically.
B. EUDOXUS

• Eudoxus proposed a system of fixed

spheres. He believed that the Sun,
the moon, the five known planets
and the stars were attached to these
spheres which carried the heavenly
bodies while they revolved around
the stationary Earth.
C. ARISTOTLE

• Aristotle was a student of Plato.

For him, the earth is spherical
in shape since it always casts a
curved shadow when it eclipses
the moon. He also believed that
the earth was the center of the
universe. The planets and stars
were concentric, crystalline
spheres centered on the earth.
D. ARISTARCHUS

• Aristarchus is the very first Greek to profess the

heliocentric view. The word helios means sun; centric
means centered. This heliocentric view considered the
sun as the center of the universe. He learned that the
sun was many time farther than the moon and that it
was much larger than the earth.

• He also made an attempt to calculate the distance of

the sun and the moon by using geometric principles.
He based his calculations on his estimated diameters
of the earth and moon, and expressed distance in
terms of diameter. However, the measurements he got
were very small and there were a lot of observational
errors.
E. ERATOSTHENES

• The first successful attempt to determine the size

of the earth was made by him. He did this by
applying geometric principles. He observed the
angles of the noonday sun in two Egyptian cities
that were almost opposite each other- Syene (now
Aswan) in the south and Alexandria in the north.
He assumed they were in the same longitude.
E. HIPPARCHUS

• Hipparchus is considered as the greatest

of the early Greek astronomers. He
observed and compared the brightness of
850 stars and arranged them into order of
brightness or magnitude.
• He developed a method for predicting the
times of lunar eclipses to within a few
hours. Aside from this, he also measured
the length of the year to within minutes of
the modern value.
G. CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY

• He believed that the earth was the center

of the universe. His Ptolemic Model
claimed that the planets moved in a
complicated system of circles. This
geocentric model also became known as
the Ptolemic System.
THE PTOLEMIC MODEL
CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY DEVELOPED
A MODEL THAT WAS ABLE TO
EXPLAIN THE OBSERVABLE
MOTIONS OF THE PLANETS.
• According to the Ptolemic Model, the sun, the
moon, and the other planets move in circular orbits
around the earth. However, if observed night after
night, these planets move slightly eastward among
the stars. At a certain point, the planet appears to
stop then moves in the opposite direction for some
time; after which it will resume its eastward
motion. This westward drift of the planets is called
retrograde motion.
• To justify his earth-centered model using
retrograde motion, he further explained
that the planets orbited on small circles,
called epicycles, revolving around large
circles called deferents.
1.The Earth casts a circular shadow on the Moon during a
lunar eclipse according to Anaxagoras.
2.The North Star has different positions depending on
the location of the observer.
3.According to Aristotle, the Moon and the Sun are both
spherical so therefore the Earth is spherical.
4.A sailing ship becomes bigger and then its hull
disappears first before the sail as if it is being
enveloped by the water until it completely disappears.
5. Pythagoras was able to determine the circumference
of the Earth based on the shadow that the light cast.
ANSWER

1.TRUE
2.TRUE
3.TRUE
4.Sailing ship becomes smaller as it goes farther
5.It was Eratosthenes who was able to determine the
circumference of the Earth .
ARRANGE THE WORDS IN CORRECT ORDER AND WRITE THE SENTENCE ON THE
BLANK PROVIDED IN EACH ITEM. THESE ARE THE OBSERVATIONS THAT LED
THE GREEKS TO CONCLUDE THAT THE EARTH IS SPHERE.

1. Earth the circular casts on the moon a shadow during a lunar

eclipse.
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2. The different has positions depending observer on the location of the
North Star.
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3. Moon spherical and the Sun are both the.
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4. A sailing ship becomes smaller and then its hull disappears first before the sail as if it
is being water enveloped by completely disappears the until it.
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5. The Sun of the with the vertical summer direction at angle noon time during a solstice
from place to place varies.
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