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Page 7 of 7
For many centuries, priests and astrologists had made observations of the stars’ and planets’ positions. This was not a mere hobby. These observations were used to calculate the right time to harvest the crops, for the coronation of a king, the start of a war, or to calculate the start of important religious events (e.g. the Moslem Ramadan fast month). They were made with quite simple instruments and laid down in tables recording the daily positions of celestial bodies.
They concluded that the Sun and the rest of the Universe revolved around the Earth. The Church had gladly adopted this view since it meant that Mankind was the centre of the Creation, just as it reads in the Bible.
 Astronomers at the Istanbul Observatory during the Middle Ages. If not for the Arabian astronomers and mathematicians we would not have science as we know it today. They studied the ancient Greek science, which in Europe was almost forgotten during the Dark Ages. Among many other things, Arabian scientists invented algebra and made many observations of stars and planets. |
Copernicus did not make many new observations of the skies to prove he was right. He would have needed the instruments that still had to be invented. What makes him unique is that he found a new way to calculate the positions of the planets. He came to the conclusion that the old model of the Earth in centre of the universe must be wrong.
This is what makes someone a Scientific Superstar: not believing what everyone else believes, and not giving in to authorities no matter how powerful they are.
You see, it’s not always wrong to know things better than your teachers.
Dick van der Wateren
Sources
The photos in this article are courtesy of the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork, Poland. http://www.frombork.art.pl/Ang01.htm
Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Revolutionibus_Orbium_Coelestium
This site shows pages from Copernicus’ manuscript of De Revolutionibus.
Links
This applet illustrates the way Ptolemy (Greek astronomer, 85 - 165 A.D.), Copernicus and Tycho Brahe (Danish astronomer, 1546 - 1601) viewed the universe. Ptolemy had the Earth in the centre, Copernicus and Tycho the Sun. See the difference between Copernicus' and Brahe's models.
Have a look at The Animated Virtual Planetarium with The "Visible" Solar System, Earth/Moon System Simulation, Comets and much more.
Here are some more applets from the same site (by Helmer Aslaksen, Department of Mathematics, National University of Singapore).
This site is about the astronomical use of the Stonehenge monument in ancient times.
Experiment
It’s now time to do some experiments. Build a simple instrument like the Greek astronomers used. Learn how to measure the positions of heavenly objects.
Experiment>>
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