Lecture 9 - Renaissance Astronomy Flashcards
Humanism
14-17th C movement in Italy but then all Lat West
- > it was the renaissance movement
- > actor’s category, they themselves thought it
Embrace of classical values - Greeks, Romans
- > emulate them
- > by this time, Phil was highest form, theology top of political power
- > intellectual freedom of Humans, not Religion first
- > Humanism was an effect, not a cause of this
- > liked Greek, Romans unencumbered
- > treated knowledge like the Romans did
Literary - e.g. Galileo wrote like Aristotle
Universities focused on realities of Human Condition
->not abstract otherwordly stuff
Mass education, not just in Uni! The printing press!
- > wide education, intellectualism
- > people would dabble in many fields
- > publish Columbus’ tales, and religion
Protestant revolution
- > hard copies of bible available
- > alternative theories explode
- > people reject Catholic doctrine & Vatican
- > focus on better articulating or rebutting Cath doctr
Copernicus
Poland’s Hero - HELIOCENTRISM
- > clerical post in church
- > Canon law
- > just another bureaucrat, not authority
- > but he became famous by word of mouth
Publishes LITTLE COMMENTARY
- > had to be pushed to publish
- > by the Church! Pope offered to finance more
Heliocentrism well received, but just interesting
->especially by church, since Julian calendar had 10 days error by 16th C
JUST A HANDY TOOL FOR PREDICTION TABLES
->eclipses, equinox very accurate
20 Years Later, Publishes De Rev
- > On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres
- > entrusted friend “Hereticus” to do it
- > who passes on to Osiander
- > who puts in the dick foreward that it’s just a calculation tool without saying who wrote it
- > not done until 1533, year of his death
Heliocentrism not new, but Copernicus first to believe
- > for a Humanist, it was mathematical beauty
- > reason enough
- > but he couldn’t give an explanation for others
- > still lots of epicycles, due to circular orbits
- > no better observations than Ptolemy
Geo-kinetic! Earth not only not centre, also moving and rotating!
Stellar Parallax:
->shouldn’t the stars and planets appear different as the Earth moves so much?
->didn’t expect distances so big
At time Positional Astronomy more popular
- > as opposed to Physical Astronomy
- > so Copernicus was taken as useful at time
Tycho Brahe
Danish nobility
- > had an island for Astronomy
- > used the Quadrant, big protractor
- > made huge one you can sit in, makes observations
Realises Arist, Ptolemy are wrong!
1) 1572, a bright new star in Cassiopeia!
- >can be change in Celestial realm
2) Two bright comets
- >couldn’t be meteors in atmosphere
- >beyond sphere of moon
- >they should have smashed Mars’ crystalline sphere!
Thought moving Earth (Copernicus) absurd.
TYCHONIC SYSTEM:
- > Earth @ center
- > moon, sun orbit earth
- > everything orbits Sun
Kepler
A Neoplatist, pythagorean
- > better understand harmony, understand God
- > 6 planets because you can place each shape inside each other, and get platonic solids (icosahedron…)
Tycho said Kepler’s work could only be verified by his observations
->then only gave him Mars
3 Laws:
1) Ellipses, sun @ a foci
- >not circular, but Tycho already said not perfect
2) Area Time
3) Harmonic Relations
- >saw “Harmonies of the World”
- >”music of the spheres”
- >harmonies of stars influenced Earth, we mimic god with music
He just wasn’t “Scientific” as we think today.
Galileo
The patron master.
->New physics of motion
Improved + produced military compasses & telescopes
