The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In Ptolemy's The Almagest, the earth is placed at the centre of the universe and the planets move in crystal spheres against a backdrop of the fixed stars. While these ideas have been swept away since the Scientific Revolution, Ptolemy's influence on astronomy was profound and long--we'll be dealing with the Y3K problem before Copernicus' time of influence catches up.
James Evans, historian and astronomer at the University of Puget Sound, believes that "staying close to the practice of astronomy means explaining a subject in enough detail for the reader to understand what the ancient astronomers actually did. As this unique book teaches you to do astronomy the old-fashioned way, you gain a deeper understanding of what the Greeks and their successors thought and did. "There is all the difference in the world between knowing about and knowing how to do," says Evans. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy is truly hands-on history and deserves to be widely imitated. --Mary Ellen Curtin, Amazon.com
Review
I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about the fascinating struggle to bring sense to the celestial sphere and the complicated motions of the planets...If you would like to know more about the technical side of ancient astronomy, this book is for you, and a personal copy would be well worth having. Certainly every university library should have a copy on its shelves. (Mike Dworetsky, Physics World, July 1999 )
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First Sentence
The oldest surviving works of the Greek literature are the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, which were put into written form probably around the end of the eighth century B.C. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
The oldest surviving works of the Greek literature are the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, which were put into written form probably around the end of the eighth century B.C. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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9 reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
A great work of scholarship--and great fun
6 Nov 1998
Format:Hardcover
An impressive compendium of thousands of years of astronomy--from Babylon to Copernicus. In tracing the history of star-gazing, Evans traces the history of science, showing how ideas arose, migrated, stood up or failed under testing, and were passed down through the centuries. One learns a deep respect for ancient astronomers. Almost 2,000 years before Columbus, Greek scientists had figured out that the world was round, and had even determined that the Earth was miniscule compared to the size of the universe. Evans is committed to the idea of learning by doing, so he gives detailed instructions on how to construct every instrument that ancient astronomers used--from sundials to astrolabes. The book is full of great science projects. I would strongly recommend this book for those interested in the history of science, ancient and medieval thought, backyard astronomy... even astrologers would benefit greatly from this book.
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic!
21 July 2000
Format:Hardcover
The big problem when writing a book about history of science, is how much background to include. If you don't include any background, the ordinary reader will not really get what's going on. Evans has instead written what can best be described as a two-fold book. It's both an introduction to astronomy and an introduction to history of astronomy! His explanations, and particularly his illustrations, are excellent. Both his scholarship and his writing are exceptional! Read it!
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Great Book, took the class from the author
24 Jan 2002
Format:Hardcover
This is great book. I got to take the class for which the book was the class book, and the author was the professor. Class time was used for discussing the history and practice of the ancient astronomers from the babylonians to copernicus. We then were able to take a lab time to go through the well written excerisize to actually do the astronomy as, say, the ancient greeks did it. You can learn how the ancient greeks were able to predict the position of the stars and planets using the principle that the earth is the center of the universe. I took the class 2 years ago, and every once and awhile i pull out the book just to read through or make a new astrolobe plate.
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