Historical astronomy
Encyclopedia
Historical astronomy is the science of analysing historic astronomical
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 data. The American Astronomical Society
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...

 (AAS), established 1899, states that its Historical Astronomy Division "...shall exist for the purpose of advancing interest in topics relating to the historical nature of astronomy. By historical astronomy we include the history of astronomy
History of astronomy
Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not...

; what has come to be known as archaeoastronomy
Archaeoastronomy
Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures." Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern...

; and the application of historical records to modern astrophysical
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...

 problems." http://www.aas.org/had/hadhist.html Historical and ancient observations are used to track theoretically long term trends, such as eclipse patterns and the velocity of nebular clouds. http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~jms/group.html Conversely, utilizing known and well documented phenomenological activity, historical astronomers and apply computer models to verify the validity of ancient observations, as well as dating
Astronomical chronology
Astronomical chronology, or astronomical dating, is a technical method of dating events or artifacts that are associated with astronomical phenomena...

 such observations and documents which would otherwise be unknown.

Examples

  • One example of such study would be the Crab Nebula
    Crab Nebula
    The Crab Nebula  is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus...

    , which is the remains of a supernova
    Supernova
    A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...

     of July 1054, the SN 1054
    SN 1054
    SN 1054 is a supernova that was first observed as a new "star" in the sky on July 4, 1054 AD, hence its name, and that lasted for a period of around two years. The event was recorded in multiple Chinese and Japanese documents and in one document from the Arab world...

    . During the Northern Sung dynasty in China, a historical astronomical record
    Chinese astronomy
    Astronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...

     was written, which lists unusual phenomena observed in the night sky. The event was also recorded by Japanese and Arab astronomers. Scholar often associate this with the creation of the Crab Nebula. [3]

  • Secondly, The astronomer
    Astronomer
    An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

     Edmond Halley
    Edmond Halley
    Edmond Halley FRS was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, following in the footsteps of John Flamsteed.-Biography and career:Halley...

     employed this science to deduce that three comet
    Comet
    A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...

    s that appeared roughly 76 years apart were in fact the same object
    Comet Halley
    Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the best-known of the short-period comets, and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime...

    .

  • Similarly, the dwarf planet
    Dwarf planet
    A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite...

     Pluto
    Pluto
    Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...

     was found to have been photographed as early as 1915 although it was not recognized until 1930.

  • Quasar
    Quasar
    A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...

    s have been photographed since the late 19th centuries although they were not known to be unusual objects until the 1960s.

See also

  • Astronomical chronology
    Astronomical chronology
    Astronomical chronology, or astronomical dating, is a technical method of dating events or artifacts that are associated with astronomical phenomena...

  • Cultural astronomy
    Cultural astronomy
    Cultural astronomy is a blanket term used to describe interdisciplinary fields that relate to astronomical systems of current or ancient societies and cultures...

  • History of astronomy
    History of astronomy
    Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not...

  • Archaeoastronomy
    Archaeoastronomy
    Archaeoastronomy is the study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures." Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern...

  • History of astronomical interferometry
  • F. Richard Stephenson
    F. Richard Stephenson
    Professor F. Richard Stephenson is an Emeritus Professor at the Physics department and East Asian Studies department at the University of Durham. His research concentrates on historical aspects of astronomy, for example analysing ancient astronomical records. He has an asteroid named after him...


External links

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