ASTR 101 Chapter 2: W3R2
Document Summary
2 storms, 2000 years apart in the mediterranean, resulting in the find of an important artifact. First storm: middle of the 1st century b. c. , sank a roman merchant vessel laden with greek treasures. Second storm: in a. d. 1900, drove a party of sponge divers to shelter off the island of antikythera. Divers looked around and found wreck, and within 9 months, they recovered a hoard of beautiful ancient greek objects. Mechanism calculated the dates of lunar and solar eclipses, modeled the moon"s subtle apparent motions through the sky to the best of the available knowledge, and kept track of the dates of events of social significance. Albert rehm first to understand, around 1905, mechanism was an astronomical calculator. Device was operated by turning a crank on its side and it displayed its output by moving pointers on dials located on its front and back.