A Short History of Astronomy (1898)/Chapter 1
A SHORT HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY.
CHAPTER I.
PRIMITIVE ASTRONOMY.
"The never-wearied Sun, the Moon exactly round,
And all those Stars with which the brows of ample heaven are
crowned,
Orion, all the Pleiades, and those seven Atlas got,
The close beamed Hyades, the Bear, surnam'd the Chariot,
That turns about heaven's axle tree, holds ope a constant eye
Upon Orion, and of all the cressets in the sky
His golden forehead never bows to th' Ocean empery."
The Iliad (Chapman's translation).
1. Astronomy is the science which treats of the sun, the moon, the stars, and other objects such as comets which are seen in the sky. It deals to some extent also with the earth, but only in so far as it has properties in common with the heavenly bodies. In early times astronomy was concerned almost entirely with the observed motions of the heavenly bodies. At a later stage astronomers were able to discover the distances and sizes of many of the heavenly bodies, and to weigh some of them; and more recently they have acquired a considerable amount of knowledge as to their nature and the material of which they are made.
2. We know nothing of the beginnings of astronomy, and can only conjecture how certain of the simpler facts of the science—particularly those with a direct influence on human life and comfort—gradually became familiar to early mankind, very much as they are familiar to modern savages.
With these facts it is convenient to begin, taking them in the order in which they most readily present themselves to any ordinary observer.
3. The sun is daily seen to rise in the eastern part of the sky, to travel across the sky, to reach its highest position in the south in the middle of the day, then to sink, and finally to set in the western part of the sky. But its daily path across the sky is not always the same: the points of the horizon at which it rises and sets, its height in the sky at midday, and the time from sunrise to sunset, all go through a series of changes, which are accompanied by changes in the weather, in vegetation, etc.; and we are thus able to recognise the existence of the seasons, and their recurrence after a certain interval of time which is known as a year.
4. But while the sun always appears as a bright circular disc, the next most conspicuous of the heavenly bodies, the moon, undergoes changes of form which readily strike the observer, and are at once seen to take place in a regular order and at about the same intervals of time. A little more care, however, is necessary in order to observe the connection between the form of the moon and her position in the sky with respect to the sun. Thus when the moon is first visible soon after sunset near the place where the sun has set, her form is a thin crescent (cf. fig. 11 on p. 31), the hollow side being turned away from the sun, and she sets soon after the sun. Next night the moon is farther from the sun, the crescent is thicker, and she sets later; and so on, until after rather less than a week from the first appearance of the crescent, she appears as a semicircular disc, with the flat side turned away from the sun. The semicircle enlarges, and after another week has grown into a complete disc; the moon is now nearly in the opposite direction to the sun, and therefore rises about at sunset and sets about at sunrise. She then begins to approach the sun on the other side, rising before it and setting in the daytime; her size again diminishes, until after another week she is again semicircular, the flat side being still turned away from the sun, but being now turned towards the west instead of towards the east. The semicircle then becomes a gradually diminishing crescent, and the time of rising approaches the time of sunrise, until the moon becomes altogether invisible. After two or three nights the new moon reappears, and the whole series of changes is repeated. The different forms thus assumed by the moon are now known as her phases; the time occupied by this series of changes, the month, would naturally suggest itself as a convenient measure of time; and the day, month, and year would thus form the basis of a rough system of time-measurement.
5. From a few observations of the stars it could also clearly be seen that they too, like the sun and moon, changed their positions in the sky, those towards the east being seen to rise, and those towards the west to sink and finally set, while others moved across the sky from east to west, and those in a certain northern part of the sky, though also in motion, were never seen either to rise or set. Although anything like a complete classification of the stars belongs to a more advanced stage of the subject, a few star groups could easily be recognised, and their position in the sky could be used as a rough means of measuring time at night, just as the position of the sun to indicate the time of day.
6. To these rudimentary notions important additions were made when rather more careful and prolonged observations became possible, and some little thought was devoted to their interpretation.
Several peoples who reached a high stage of civilisation at an early period claim to have made important progress in astronomy. Greek traditions assign considerable astronomical knowledge to Egyptian priests who lived some thousands of years B.C., and some of the peculiarities of the pyramids which were built at some such period are at any rate plausibly interpreted as evidence of pretty accurate astronomical observations; Chinese records describe observations supposed to have been made in the 25th century B.C.; some of the Indian sacred books refer to astronomical knowledge acquired several centuries before this time; and the first observations of the Chaldaean priests of Babylon have been attributed to times not much later.
On the other hand, the earliest recorded astronomical observation the authenticity of which may be accepted without scruple belongs only to the 8th century B.C.
For the purposes of this book it is not worth while to make any attempt to disentangle from the mass of doubtful tradition and conjectural interpretation of inscriptions, bearing on this early astronomy, the few facts which lie embedded therein; and we may proceed at once to give some account of the astronomical knowledge, other than that already dealt with, which is discovered in the possession of the earliest really historical astronomers—the Greeks—at the beginning of their scientific history, leaving it an open question what portions of it were derived from Egyptians, Chaldaeans, their own ancestors, or other sources.
7. If an observer looks at the stars on any clear night he sees an apparently innumerable[1] host of them, which seem to lie on a portion of a spherical surface, of which he is the centre. This spherical surface is commonly spoken of as the sky, and is known to astronomy as the celestial sphere. The visible part of this sphere is bounded by the earth, so that only half can be seen at once; but only the slightest effort of the imagination is required to think of the other half as lying below the earth, and containing other stars, as well as the sun. This sphere appears to the observer to be very large, though he is incapable of forming any precise estimate of its size.[2]
Most of us at the present day have been taught in childhood that the stars are at different distances, and that this sphere has in consequence no real existence. The early peoples had no knowledge of this, and for them the celestial sphere really existed, and was often thought to be a solid sphere of crystal.
Moreover modern astronomers, as well as ancient, find it convenient for very many purposes to make use of this sphere, though it has no material existence, as a means of representing the directions in which the heavenly bodies are seen and their motions. For all that direct observation can tell us about the position of such an object as a star is its direction; its distance can only be ascertained by indirect methods, if at all. If we draw a sphere, and suppose the observer's eye placed at its centre o (fig. 1), and then draw a straight line from o to a star s, meeting the surface of the sphere in the point s; then the star appears exactly in the same position as if it were at s, nor would its apparent position be changed if it were placed at any other point, such as s′ or s″, on this same
Fig. 1.—The celestial sphere.
line. When we speak, therefore, of a star as being at a point s on the celestial sphere, all that we mean is that it is in the same direction as the point s, or, in other words, that it is situated somewhere on the straight line through o and s. The advantages of this method of representing the position of a star become evident when we wish to compare the positions of several stars. The difference of direction of two stars is the angle between the lines drawn from the eye to the stars; e.g., if the stars are r, s, it is the angle r o s. Similarly the difference of direction of another pair of stars, p, q, is the angle p o q. The two stars p and q appear nearer together than do r and s, or farther apart, according as the angle p o q is less or greater than the angle r o s. But if we represent the stars by the corresponding points p, q, r, s on the celestial sphere, then (by an obvious property of the sphere) the angle p o q (which is the same as p o q) is less or greater than the angle r o s (or r o s) according as the arc joining / q on the sphere is less or greater than the arc joining r s, and in the same proportion; if, for example, the angle r o s is twice as great as the angle p o Q, so also is the arc p q twice as great as the arc r s. We may therefore, in all questions relating only to the directions of the stars, replace the angle between the directions of two stars by the arc joining the corresponding points on the celestial sphere, or, in other words, by the distance between these points on the celestial sphere. But such arcs on a sphere are easier both to estimate by eye and to treat geometrically than angles, and the use of the celestial sphere is therefore of great value, apart from its historical origin. It is important to note that this apparent distance of two stars, i.e. their distance from one another on the celestial sphere, is an entirely different thing from their actual distance from one another in space. In the figure, for example, q is actually much nearer to s than it is to p, but the apparent distance measured by the arc q s is several times greater than q p. The apparent distance of two points on the celestial sphere is measured numerically by the angle between the lines joining the eye to the two points, expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds.[3]
We might of course agree to regard the celestial sphere as of a particular size, and then express the distance between two points on it in miles, feet, or inches; but it is practically very inconvenient to do so. To say, as some people occasionally do, that the distance between two stars is so many feet is meaningless, unless the supposed size of the celestial sphere is given at the same time.
It has already been pointed out that the observer is always at the centre of the celestial sphere; this remains true even if he moves to another place. A sphere has, however, only one centre, and therefore if the sphere remains fixed the observer cannot move about and yet always remain at the centre. The old astronomers met this difficulty by supposing that the celestial sphere was so large that any possible motion of the observer would be insignificant in comparison with the radius of the sphere and could be neglected. It is often more convenient—when we are using the sphere as a mere geometrical device for representing the position of the stars—to regard the sphere as moving with the observer, so that he always remains at the centre.
8. Although the stars all appear to move across the sky (§ 5), and their rates of motion differ, yet the distance between any two stars remains unchanged, and they were consequently regarded as being attached to the celestial sphere. Moreover a little careful observation would have shown that the motions of the stars in different parts of the sky, though at first sight very different, were just such as would have been produced by the celestial sphere—with the stars attached to it—turning about an axis passing through the centre and through a point in the northern sky close to the familiar pole-star. This point is called the pole. As, however, a straight line drawn through the centre of a sphere meets it in two points, the axis of the celestial sphere meets it again in a second point, opposite the first, lying in a part of the celestial sphere which is permanently below the horizon. This second point is also called a pole; and if the two poles have to be distinguished, the one mentioned first is called the north pole, and the other the south pole. The direction of the rotation of the celestial sphere about its axis is such that stars near the north pole are seen to move round it in circles in the direction opposite to that in which the hands of a clock move; the motion is uniform, and a complete revolution is performed in four minutes less than twenty-four hours; so that the position of any star in the sky at twelve o'clock to-night is the same as its position at four minutes to twelve to-morrow night.
The moon, like the stars, shares this motion of the celestial sphere, and so also does the sun, though this is more difficult to recognise owing to the fact that the sun and stars are not seen together.
As other motions of the celestial bodies have to be dealt with, the general motion just described may be conveniently referred to as the daily motion or daily rotation of the celestial sphere.
9. A further study of the daily motion would lead to the recognition of certain important circles of the celestial sphere.
Each star describes in its daily motion a circle, the size of which depends on its distance from the poles. Fig. 2 shews the paths described by a number of stars near the pole, recorded photographically, during part of a night. The pole-star describes so small a circle that its motion can only with difficulty be detected with the naked eye, stars a little farther off the pole describe larger circles, and so on, until we come to stars half-way between the two poles, which describe the largest circle which can be drawn on the celestial sphere. The circle on which these stars lie and which is described by any one of them daily is called the equator. By looking at a diagram such as fig. 3, or, better still, by looking at an actual globe, it can easily be seen that half the equator (e q w) lies above and half (the dotted part, w r e) below the horizon, and that in consequence a star, such as s, lying on the equator, is in its daily motion as long a time above the horizon as below. If a star, such as s, lies on the north side of the equator, i.e. on the side on which the north pole p lies, more than half of its daily path lies above the horizon and less than half (as shewn by the dotted line) lies below; and if a star is near enough to the north pole (more precisely, if it is nearer to the north pole than the nearest point, k, of the horizon), as σ, it never sets, but remains continually above the horizon. Such a star is called a (northern) circumpolar star. On the other hand, less than half of the daily path of a star on the south side of the equator, as s', is above the horizon, and a star, such as σ', the distance of which from the north pole is greater than the distance of the farthest point, h, of the horizon, or which is nearer than h to the south pole, remains continually below the horizon.
10. A slight familiarity with the stars is enough to shew any one that the same stars are not always visible at the 
[To face p. 8.
same time of night. Rather more careful observation, carried out for a considerable time, is necessary in order to see that the aspect of the sky changes in a regular way from night to night, and that after the lapse of a year the same stars become again visible at the same time. The explanation of these changes as due to the motion of the sun on the celestial sphere is more difficult, and the unknown discoverer of this fact certainly made one of the most important steps in early astronomy.
Fig. 3.—The circles of the celestial sphere.
If an observer notices soon after sunset a star somewhere in the west, and looks for it again a few evenings later at about the same time, he finds it lower down and nearer to the sun; a few evenings later still it is invisible, while its place has now been taken by some other star which was at first farther east in the sky. This star can in turn be observed to approach the sun evening by evening. Or if the stars visible after sunset low down in the east are noticed a few days later, they are found to be higher up in the sky, and their place is taken by other stars at first too low down to be seen. Such observations of stars rising or setting about sunrise or sunset shewed to early observers that the stars were gradually changing their position with respect to the sun, or that the sun was changing its position with respect to the stars.
The changes just described, coupled with the fact that the stars do not change their positions with respect to one another, shew that the stars as a whole perform their daily revolution rather more rapidly than the sun, and at such a rate that they gain on it one complete revolution in the course of the year. This can be expressed otherwise in the form that the stars are all moving westward on the celestial sphere, relatively to the sun, so that stars on the east are continually approaching and those on the west continually receding from the sun. But, again, the same facts can be expressed with equal accuracy and greater simplicity if we regard the stars as fixed on the celestial sphere, and the sun as moving on it from west to east among them (that is, in the direction opposite to that of the daily motion), and at such a rate as to complete a circuit of the celestial sphere and to return to the same position after a year.
This annual motion of the sun is, however, readily seen not to be merely a motion from west to east, for if so the sun would always rise and set at the same points of the horizon, as a star does, and its midday height in the sky and the time from sunrise to sunset would always be the same. We have already seen that if a star lies on the equator half of its daily path is above the horizon, if the star is north of the equator more than half, and if south of the equator less than half; and what is true of a star is true for the same reason of any body sharing the daily motion of the celestial sphere. During the summer months therefore (March to September), when the day is longer than the night, and more than half of the sun's daily path is above the horizon, the sun must be north of the equator, and during the winter months (September to March) the sun must be south of the equator. The change in the sun's distance from the pole is also evident from the fact that in the winter months the sun is on the whole lower down in the sky than in summer, and that in particular its midday height is less.
11. The sun's path on the celestial sphere is therefore oblique to the equator, lying partly on one side of it and partly on the other. A good deal of careful observation of the kind we have been describing must, however, have been necessary before it was ascertained that the sun's annual path on the celestial sphere (see fig. 4) is a great circle (that is, a circle having its centre at the centre of the sphere). This great circle is now called the ecliptic (because eclipses take place only when the moon is in or near it), and the angle at which it cuts the equator is called the obliquity of the ecliptic. The Chinese claim to have measured the obliquity in 1100 B.C., and to have found the remarkably accurate value 23° 52' (cf. chapter ii., § 35). The truth of this statement may reasonably be doubted, but on the other hand the statement of some late Greek writers that either Pythagoras or Anaximander (6th century B.C.)
Fig. 4.—The equator and the ecliptic. was the first to discover the obliquity of the ecliptic is almost certainly wrong. It must have been known with reasonable accuracy to both Chaldaeans and Egyptians long before.
When the sun crosses the equator the day is equal to the night, and the times when this occurs are consequently known as the equinoxes, the vernal equinox occurring when the sun crosses the equator from south to north (about March 21st), and the autumnal equinox when it crosses back (about September 23rd). The points on the celestial sphere where the sun crosses the equator (a, c in fig. 4), i.e. where ecliptic and equator cross one another, are called the equinoctial points, occasionally also the equinoxes.
After the vernal equinox the sun in its path along the ecliptic recedes from the equator towards the north, until it reaches, about three months afterwards, its greatest distance from the equator, and then approaches the equator again. The time when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator on the north side is called the summer solstice, because then the northward motion of the sun is arrested and it temporarily appears to stand still. Similarly the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator towards the south at the winter solstice. The points on the ecliptic (b, d in fig. 4) where the sun is at the solstices are called the solstitial points, and are half-way between the equinoctial points.
12. The earliest observers probably noticed particular groups of stars remarkable for their form or for the presence of bright stars among them, and occupied their fancy by tracing resemblances between them and familiar objects, etc. We have thus at a very early period a rough attempt at dividing the stars into groups called constellations and at naming the latter.
In some cases the stars regarded as belonging to a constellation form a well-marked group on the sky, sufficiently separated from other stars to be conveniently classed together, although the resemblance which the group bears to the object after which it is named is often very slight. The seven bright stars of the Great Bear, for example, form a group which any observer would very soon notice and naturally make into a constellation, but the resemblance to a bear of these and the fainter stars of the constellation is sufficiently remote (see fig. 5), and as a matter of fact this part of the Bear has also been called a Waggon and is in America familiarly known as the Dipper; another constellation has sometimes been called the Lyre and sometimes also the Vulture. In very many cases the choice of stars seems to have been made in such an arbitrary manner, as to suggest that some fanciful figure was first imagined and that stars were then selected so as to represent it in some rough sort of way. In fact, as Sir John Herschel remarks, "The constellations seem to have been purposely named and delineated to cause as much confusion and inconvenience as possible. Innumerable snakes twine through long and contorted areas of the heavens where no 
Fig. 5.—The Great Bear. From Bayer's Uranometria (1603).
[To face p. 12.
memory can follow them; bears, lions, and fishes, large and small, confuse all nomenclature." (Outlines of Astronomy, § 301.)
The constellations as we now have them are, with the exception of a certain number (chiefly in the southern skies) which have been added in modern times, substantially those which existed in early Greek astronomy; and such information as we possess of the Chaldaean and Egyptian constellations shews resemblances indicating that the Greeks borrowed some of them. The names, as far as they are not those of animals or common objects (Bear, Serpent, Lyre, etc.), are largely taken from characters in the Greek mythology (Hercules, Perseus, Orion, etc.). The constellation Berenice's Hair, named after an Egyptian queen of the 3rd century B.C., is one of the few which commemorate a historical personage.[4]
13. Among the constellations which first received names were those through which the sun passes in its annual circuit of the celestial sphere, that is those through which the ecliptic passes. The moon's monthly path is also a great circle, never differing very much from the ecliptic, and the paths of the planets (§ 14) are such that they also are never far from the ecliptic. Consequently the sun, the moon, and the five planets were always to be found within a region of the sky extending about 8° on each side of the ecliptic. This strip of the celestial sphere was called the zodiac, because the constellations in it were (with one exception) named after living things (Greek ζῷον, an animal); it was divided into twelve equal parts, the signs of the zodiac, through one of which the sun passed every month, so that the position of the sun at any time could be roughly described by stating in what "sign" it was. The stars in each "sign" were formed into a constellation, the "sign" and the constellation each receiving the same name. Thus arose twelve zodiacal constellations, the names of which have come down to us with unimportant changes from early Greek times[5] Owing, however, to an alteration of the position of the equator, and consequently of the equinoctial points, the sign Aries, which was defined by Hipparchus in the second century B.C. (see chapter ii., § 42) as beginning at the vernal equinoctial point, no longer contains the constellation Aries, but the preceding one, Pisces; and there is a corresponding change throughout the zodiac. The more precise numerical methods of modern astronomy have, however, rendered the signs of the zodiac almost obsolete; but the first point of Aries (♈︎), and the first point of Libra (♎︎), are still the recognised names for the equinoctial points.
In some cases individual stars also received special names, or were called after the part of the constellation in which they were situated, e.g. Sirius, the Eye of the Bull, the Heart of the Lion, etc.; but the majority of the present names of single stars are of Arabic origin (chapter iii., § 64).
14. We have seen that the stars, as a whole, retain invariable positions on the celestial sphere,[6] whereas the sun and moon change their positions. It was, however, discovered in prehistoric times that five bodies, at first sight barely distinguishable from the other stars, also changed their places. These five—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—with the sun and moon, were called planets,[7] or wanderers, as distinguished from the fixed stars. Mercury is never seen except occasionally near the horizon just after sunset or before sunrise, and in a climate like ours requires a good deal of looking for; and it is rather remarkable that no record of its discovery should exist. Venus is conspicuous as the Evening Star or as the Morning Star. The discovery of the identity of the Evening and Morning Stars is attributed to Pythagoras (6th century B.C.), but must almost certainly have been made earlier, though the Homeric poems contain references to both, without any indication of their identity. Jupiter is at times as conspicuous as Venus at her brightest, while Mars and Saturn, when well situated, rank with the brightest of the fixed stars.
The paths of the planets on the celestial sphere are, as we have seen (§ 13), never very far from the ecliptic; but whereas the sun and moon move continuously along their paths from west to east, the motion of a planet is sometimes from west to east, or direct, and sometimes from east to west, or retrograde. If we begin to watch a planet when it is moving eastwards among the stars, we find that after a time the motion becomes slower and slower, until the planet hardly seems to move at all, and then begins to move with gradually increasing speed in the opposite direction; after a time this westward motion becomes slower and then ceases, and the planet then begins to move eastwards again, at first slowly and then faster, until it returns to its original condition, and the changes are repeated. When the planet is just reversing its motion it is said to be stationary, and its position then is called a stationary point. The time during which a planet's motion is retrograde is, however, always considerably less than that during which it is direct; Jupiter's motion, for example, is direct for about 39 weeks and retrograde for 17, while Mercury's direct motion lasts 13 or 14 weeks and the retrograde motion only about 3 weeks (see figs. 6, 7). On the whole the planets advance from west to east and describe circuits round the celestial sphere in periods which are different for each planet. The explanation of these irregularities in the planetary motions was long one of the great difficulties of astronomy.
15. The idea that some of the heavenly bodies are nearer to the earth than others must have been suggested by eclipses (§ 17) and occultations, i.e. passages of the moon over a planet or fixed star. In this way the moon would be recognised as nearer than any of the other celestial bodies. No direct means being available for determining the distances, rapidity of motion was employed as a test of probable nearness. Now Saturn returns to the same place among the stars in about 2912 years, Jupiter in 12 years. Mars in 2 years, the sun in one year, Venus in 225
days, Mercury in 88 days, and the moon in 27 days; and this order was usually taken to be the order of distance, Saturn being the most distant, the moon the nearest. The stars being seen above us it was natural to think of the most distant celestial bodies as being the highest, and accordingly Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars being beyond the sun were called superior planets, as distinguished from the two inferior planets Venus and Mercury. This division corresponds also to a difference in the observed motions, as Venus and Mercury seem to accompany the sun in its annual journey, being never more than about 47° and 29° respectively distant from it, on either side; while the other planets are not thus restricted in their motions.
16. One of the purposes to which applications of astronomical knowledge was first applied was to the measurement of time. As the alternate appearance and disappearance of the sun, bringing with it light and heat, is the most obvious of astronomical facts, so the day is
the simplest unit of time.[8] Some of the early civilised nations divided the time from sunrise to sunset and also the night each into 12 equal hours. According to this arrangement a day-hour was in summer longer than a night-hour and in winter shorter, and the length of an hour varied during the year. At Babylon, for example, where this arrangement existed, the length of a day-hour was at midsummer about half as long again as in midwinter, and in London it would be about twice as long. It was therefore a great improvement when the Greeks, in comparatively late times, divided the whole day into 24 equal hours. Other early nations divided the same period into 12 double hours, and others again into 60 hours.
The next most obvious unit of time is the lunar month, or period during which the moon goes through her phases. A third independent unit is the year. Although the year is for ordinary life much more important than the month, yet as it is much longer and any one time of year is harder to recognise than a particular phase of the moon, the length of the year is more difficult to determine, and the earliest known systems of time-measurement were accordingly based on the month, not on the year. The month was found to be nearly equal to 2912 days, and as a period consisting of an exact number of days was obviously convenient for most ordinary purposes, months of 29 or 30 days were used, and subsequently the calendar was brought into closer accord with the moon by the use of months containing alternately 29 and 30 days (cf. chapter ii., § 19).
Both Chaldaeans and Egyptians appear to have known that the year consisted of about 36514 days; and the latter, for whom the importance of the year was emphasised by the rising and falling of the Nile, were probably the first nation to use the year in preference to the month as a measure of time. They chose a year of 365 days.
The origin of the week is quite different from that of the month or year, and rests on certain astrological ideas about the planets. To each hour of the day one of the seven planets (sun and moon included) was assigned as a "ruler," and each day named after the planet which ruled its first hour. The planets being taken in the order already given (§ 15), Saturn ruled the first hour of the first day, and therefore also the 8th, 15th, and 22nd hours of the first day, the 5th, 12th, and 19th of the second day, and so on; Jupiter ruled the 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd hours of the first day, and subsequendy the 1st hour of the 6th day. In this way the first hours of successive days fell respectively to Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus. The first three are easily recognised in our Saturday, Sunday, and Monday; in the other days the names of the Roman gods have been replaced by their supposed Teutonic equivalents—Mercury by Wodan, Mars by Thues, Jupiter by Thor, Venus by Freia.[9]
17. Eclipses of the sun and moon must from very early times have excited great interest, mingled with superstitious terror, and the hope of acquiring some knowledge of them was probably an important stimulus to early astronomical work. That eclipses of the sun only take place at new moon, and those of the moon only at full moon, must have been noticed after very little observation; that eclipses of the sun are caused by the passage of the moon in front of it must have been only a little less obvious; but the discovery that eclipses of the moon are caused by the earth's shadow was probably made much later. In fact even in the time of Anaxagoras (5th century B.C.) the idea was so unfamiliar to the Athenian public as to be regarded as blasphemous.
One of the most remarkable of the Chaldaean contributions to astronomy was the discovery (made at any rate several centuries B.C.) of the recurrence of eclipses after a period, known as the saros, consisting of 6,585 days (or eighteen of our years and ten or eleven days, according as five or four leap-years are included). It is probable that the discovery was made, not by calculations based on knowledge of the motions of the sun and moon, but by mere study of the dates on which eclipses were recorded to have taken place. As, however, an eclipse of the sun (unlike an eclipse of the moon) is only visible over a small part of the surface of the earth, and eclipses of the sun occurring at intervals of eighteen years are not generally visible at the same place, it is not at all easy to see how the Chaldaeans could have established their cycle for this case, nor is it in fact clear that the saros was supposed to apply to solar as well as to lunar eclipses. The saros may be illustrated in modern times by the eclipses of the sun which took place on July 18th, 1860, on July 29th, 1878, and on August 9th, 1896; but the first was visible in Southern Europe, the second in North America, and the third in Northern Europe and Asia.
18. To the Chaldaeans may be assigned also the doubtful honour of having been among the first to develop astrology, the false science which has professed to ascertain the influence of the stars on human affairs, to predict by celestial observations wars, famines, and pestilences, and to discover the fate of individuals from the positions of the stars at their birth. A belief in some form of astrology has always prevailed in oriental countries; it flourished at times among the Greeks and the Romans; it formed an important part of the thought of the Middle Ages, and is not even quite extinct among ourselves at the present day.[10] It should, however, be remembered that if the history of astrology is a painful one, owing to the numerous illustrations which it affords of human credulity and knavery, the belief in it has undoubtedly been a powerful stimulus to genuine astronomical study (cf. chapter iii., § 56, and chapter v., §§ 99, 100).
- ↑ In our climate 2,000 is about the greatest number ever visible at once, even to a keen-sighted person.
- ↑ Owing to the greater brightness of the stars overhead they usually seem a little nearer than those near the horizon, and consequently the visible portion of the celestial sphere appears to be rather less than a half of a complete sphere. This is, however, of no importance, and will for the future be ignored.
- ↑ A right angle is divided into ninety degrees (90), a degree into sixty minutes (60'), and a minute into sixty seconds (60").
- ↑ I have made no attempt either here or elsewhere to describe the constellations and their positions, as I believe such verbal descriptions to be almost useless. For a beginner who wishes to become familiar with them the best plan is to get some better informed friend to point out a few of the more conspicuous ones, in different parts of the sky. Others can then be readily added by means of a star-atlas, or of the star-maps given in many textbooks.
- ↑ The names, in the customary Latin forms, are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces; they are easily remembered by the doggerel verses:—
The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins,
And next the Crab, the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales,
The Scorpion, Archer, and He-Goat,
The Man that bears the Watering-pot,
And Fish with glittering tails, - ↑ This statement leaves out of account small motions nearly or quite invisible to the naked eye, some of which are among the most interesting discoveries of telescopic astronomy; see, for example, chapter x., §§ 207-215.
- ↑ The custom of calling the sun and moon planets has now died out, and the modern usage will be adopted henceforward in this book.
- ↑ It may be noted that our word "day" (and the corresponding word in other languages) is commonly used in two senses, either for the time between sunrise and sunset (day as distinguished from night), or for the whole period of 24 hours or day-and-night. The Greeks, however, used for the latter a special word, νυχθήμερον.
- ↑ Compare the French: Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi; or better still the Italian: Martedi, Mercoledi, Giovedi, Venerdi.
- ↑ See, for example, Old Moore's or Zadkiel's Almanack.