The History of Astronomy Part 3

One of the great mysteries the ancient people struggled with was how the things in the sky related to the earth. Did the sun travel around the earth? Why did the stars move the way they did? How did the moon fit in?

They came up with some ideas:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/23313-the-history-of-astronomy-the-greeks-and-mayans-video.htm

Unfortunately, some of their main ideas, like the earth being the center of the solar system, were really wrong. Fortunately, some people started to figure that out:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/29275-100-greatest-discoveries-theory-of-copernicus-video.htm

To learn more about Copernicus, read here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/coper.html

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/23314-the-history-of-astronomy-laws-of-planetary-motion-video.htm

To learn more about Kepler, read here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/cosmostar/html/kepler.html

Kepler, one of the men who figured out what was going on with the planets, was not only a great scientist, but also one of the first science fiction writers. He got this book from his teacher, Tycho Brahe, and it helped him with his theories. You can see a scanned copy of the actual book here: http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Brahe/brahe.htm