astronomical phenomena in ancient greece

Each of the two stars was about 10 degrees from the celestial pole which lay directly between them. They thought that aligning the pyramids toward north gave the deceased pharaohs direct access to the northern sky. To assure that a king would join the circumpolar stars, the pyramids were laid out facing due north toward the 'indestructible' stars. Egyptians aligned their pyramids and temples toward the north because they believed their pharaohs became stars in the northern sky after they died.He calculated correctly that Earth is a ball about 25,000 miles around. Eratosthenes understood correctly that meant Earth's surface is curved. In the 3rd century B.C., Eratosthenes was a Greek astronomer working in Egypt when he noticed the Sun directly over one city cast a shadow in another city 500 miles north.In the 4th century B.C., Aristotle of Stagira knew the Earth was round because of eclipses observed when Earth passed between the Moon and the Sun.noticed that the so-called evening star and morning star were the same body, the planet Venus.

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras about 550 B.C. Early Greek astronomers learned from the Babylonians.The Egyptians referred to those stars as 'the indestructibles.' Today we know them as Kochab, in the bowl of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor), and Mizar, in the middle of the handle of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). In particular, they were drawn to two bright stars that always could be seen circling the North Pole. Ancient Egyptians were very interested in the night sky.In fact, the oldest records we have of astronomical observations are 30,000-year-old paintings found on the walls of caves. Early people noticed constellations of stars in the sky that looked like animals and people, and made up stories about what they thought they saw.Early on, they noticed that the Moon changed shape from night to night as well as its position among the stars. For tens of thousands of years, human beings have been fascinated by the patterns of stars in the sky above Earth.

Astronomical phenomena in ancient greece