Announcements First exam is two weeks from Thursday (February 18). Will cover chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. Sample questions have been posted. Format will be 15 MC’s (3 points each) and 3 essays (18 points each) from a list of 5. The exam will be open book but not open note. The Dark Sky Observing Night tonight is cancelled. Next Dark Sky Night is scheduled for Monday night. Set-up starts 45 minutes before the start time so meet here at 6:45pm. Cancellation notice, if needed, will be posted on APSU Astronomy website by 5:00 that day.

The fall of Rome opened a “Dark Age” for astronomy in Europe Anicius Boethius (Saint Severinus) attempted to translate many of the works of the Greeks into Latin in the 4 th & 5 th centuries but was executed by a tyrant after completing only a few works on logic

Calcidius translated many of the works of Plato Plato’s Timaeus outlines the cosmological myth of ancient Greece

The best “text” on astronomy was by Martianus Capella Astronomy was one of the seven liberal arts The Marriage of Philology and Mercury

Martianus Capella actually proposed Mercury and Venus went around the Sun

Eventually, Greek is no longer taught and the original works are lost Most of Europe becomes more concerned with the Crusades than with learning

The need for an accurate calendar kept astronomers employed The Venerable Bede, an English monk and “timekeeper” worked out the date for Easter for 532 years (28 Metonic Cycles of 19 years)

The “Problem” of the date of Easter wouldn’t be solved until 1582

Gerbert of Aurillac Brought the astrolabe to Europe through his visits to Spain Later established center of learning at Reims

By the 12 th Century translators were starting to translate many of the ancient works into Latin Gerard of Cremona is credited with translating over seventy works including the Toledan Tables of al-Zarqali

The Europeans even began to invent their own astronomical instruments Invented by Levi ben Gerson around 1300, the cross-staff allows measurement of the angle between two objects

With more instruments came more sophistication

As measurements improved, there was a need to recalculate the astronomical tables using the Almagest Alphonsine Tables commissioned by King Alphonse of Spain in the 14 th Century

The invention of the printing press brings a revolution to astronomy

Reliable texts on astronomy could be produced Frontispiece to Regiomontanus’ Epitome of the Almagest first published in 1496

As more texts became available to more people, questions arose Aristotle’s explanation for the flight of an arrow was patently absurd As they began to question Aristotle’s explanations for terrestrial motion, so too they questioned his (and other Greeks) explanation for celestial motions