AST201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Minute And Second Of Arc, Scientific Modelling, Ellipse

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST201H1
• Professor: Ian Shelton

Document Summary

Compiled the most accurate (to one arc minute, the moon is 30 arc minutes in diameter) naked eye measurements ever made of planetary positions. Hired kepler (best mathmetition), who used tycho"s observations to discover the truth about planetary motion. Could only see as far as the eye could see. Everything rises in the east, and sets in the west. The moon is constantly moving in the sky. Wandering stars = starlike objects, slowly moving across the night sky (due to the earth spinning), they were planets. People gave them powers, divining the stars. Knowing where the stars were in connection to the stars behind. It was important to know where the planets/stars were in the sky. Similarly, the moon"s location has an impact on the water"s tides. Brahe had to know where the stars were in the sky, predict ahead. Patterns in the sky stay the same, they just shift slowly.