Preview: The Cosmic Landscape 1 Overview 1 The Night Sky 15 History of Astronomy 23 1.1 Prehistoric Astronomy 24 The Celestial Sphere 25 Constellations 25 Motions of the Sun and Stars 27 The Seasons 30 The Planets and the Zodiac 34 The Moon 36 Eclipses 38
1.2 Early Ideas of the Heavens:Classical Astronomy 39 The Shape of the Earth 39 The Size of the Earth 40 Distance and Size of the Sun and Moon 41 Extending Our Reach: Measuring the Diameter of Astronomical Objects 42 The Motion of the Planets 45 Ptolemy 45 Islamic Contributions 46 Asian Contributions 46
1.3 Astronomy in the Renaissance 46 Copernicus 46 Tycho and Kepler 48 Galileo 51
1.4 Isaac Newton and the Birth of Astrophysics 53 1.5 The Growth of Astrophysics 54 New Discoveries 54 New Technologies 54 The Nature of Matter and Heat 54 The Kelvin Temperature Scale 55 Projects 58
Essay 1 Backyard Astronomy 61 Overview 2 Atoms, Forces, Light, and How We Learn About the Universe 71 |