Astronomy › Section B · Observing the sky › Topic B.2
Ancient astronomy
Long before telescopes, people across the world tracked the sky closely enough to keep calendars, predict eclipses and cross oceans. Greek astronomers went further, working out the shape and size of Earth and building a model of planetary motion that lasted well over a thousand years.
In this topic
- Sky-watchers around the world
- Monuments aligned with the sky
- Greek evidence for a round Earth
- A moving Earth, rejected
- Eratosthenes measures Earth
- Worked example: measuring Earth yourself
- Hipparchus and precession
- Worked example: how fast is precession?
- Ptolemy's model
- A model that lasted
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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