The History of Astronomy Part 2

"Astronomy has been practiced for as long as humans have been looking at the sky and wondering what it all means. Early civilizations, for example, Harappans, Mayans, and ancient Chinese used astronomy to keep track of time, orient their cities, and to try to predict the future. Early astronomy was a mix of careful observation of the positions and motions of the heavenly bodies, religion, and astrology." (http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/history.php#questions)


All around the world and through time, people have tried to figure out what they were seeing.

Notice in the video that it showed pictures the Chinese drew to represent comets. The pictures looked like balls with broomsticks coming out of them.

How would you draw the things you see in the sky? Can you make a picture that distinguishes between the different object (since all of them could be drawn as circles, I suppose)? Take a few minutes to make pictures of how you would show what's in the sky. Include at least the sun, a star, a comet, a planet, and a moon. You could also include a shooting star, a satellite, or any of the other things you can see in the sky.

For more, you can watch this (starts boring)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/63308/cosmos-the-backbone-of-night?c=News-and-Information#x-0,vepisode,1