If you have ever wanted to understand the basic principles of astronomy and celestial movements
you should read this book. Using pictures of the sky observed from different places on Earth
as well as drawings of ancient astronomical methods and tools Prof. Sun Kwok tells this story
in an entertaining and fascinating way.Since the beginning of human civilization people have
wondered about the structure of the cosmos and our place in the Universe. More than 2 000 years
ago our ancestors knew that the seasons were unequal the Earth was an unattached object
floating in space and stars existed that they could not see. From celestial observations they
concluded that the Earth was round. Using simple tools and mathematics ancient astronomers
accurately determined the sizes of the Earth and Moon the distance to the Moon and the
lengths of the months and year. With a clever device called the armillary sphere Greek
astronomers could predict the times of sunrise and sunset on any day of the year at any place
on Earth. They developed sophisticated mathematical models to forecast Mars' motions hundreds
of years into the future. Find out how ancient observers achieved these remarkable feats. With
minimal use of mathematics this book retraces the footsteps of our ancestors explains their
intellectual journeys in simple terms and explores the philosophical implications of these
discoveries.
