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The History of Astronomy
A Very Short Introduction
Michael Hoskin
136 pages
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15 black and white
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174x111mm
978-0-19-280306-1
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Paperback
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08 May 2003
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- The only short introduction to this subject
- Focuses on the major developments of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton and beyond
- Looks at astronomy in antiquity: the Egyptians and the Greeks: Aristotle, Plato, Eudoxus, Hipparchus
- Final chapter on the directions that the subject has taken since 1950
Astronomy, perhaps the first of the sciences, was already well developed by the time of Christ. Seventeen centuries later, after Newton showed that the movements of the planets could be explained in terms of gravitation, it became the paradigm for the mathematical sciences. In the nineteenth century the analysis of star-light allowed astrophysicists to determine both the chemical composition and the radial velocities of celestial bodies, while the development of photography enabled distant objects invisible to the human eye, to be studied and measured in comfort. Technical developments during and since the Second World War have greatly enlarged
the scope of the science by permitting the study of radiation.
This is a fascinating introduction to the history of Western astronomy, from prehistoric times to the origins of astrophysics in the mid-nineteenth century. Historical records are first found in Babylon and Egypt, and after two millennia the arithmetical astronomy of the Babylonians merged with the Greek geometrical approach to culminate in the Almagest of Ptolemy. This legacy was transmitted to the Latin West via Islam, and led to Copernicus's claim that the Earth is in motion. In justifying this Kepler converted astronomy into a branch of dynamics, leading to Newton's universal law of gravity. The book concludes with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century applications of Newton's law, and the first
explorations of the universe of stars.
Readership: The general reader, amateur astronomers, students studying astronomy, students of history of science, and professional astronomers.
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Michael Hoskin, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge
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"Packed with information as it is, Hoskin's short introduction makes an astonishingly good read." - Curtis Wilson, JHA
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1: The Sky in Prehistory
2: Astronomy in Antiquity
3: Astronomy in Middle Ages
4: Astronomy Transformed
5: Astronomy in the Age of Newton
6: Exploring the Universe of Stars
Epilogue
Further Reading
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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