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An Introduction to Astronomy The Electromagnetic Spectrum and Greco-Roman Times The Electromagnetic Spectrum • http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/kn ow_l1/emspectrum.html Greco-Roman Times • Patterns in the night sky • Are the objects in the sky similar each night? • What changes over time? • Use Stellarium to look at the movement of stars, including the sun, the moon and the planets Greco-Roman Times • Myths and stories – Constellations – Movement of celestial objects • The moon and stars consistently move in the same direction across the night sky (they rise and set) • Planets sometimes reverse their direction, which is called retrograde motion • The Greeks, Romans, and other cultures named the planets after gods, based on their characteristics. For example, in Roman mythology Mercury was a swift messenger; the planet that orbits the sun the fastest is named after him. Greco-Roman Times • The sun, the moon, and five planets--Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn could be seen with the naked eye. These seven objects were used by many cultures to name the days of the week. English uses a blend of Roman and Germanic names: – Sunday: The sun's day. Sol was the Roman god of the sun. – Monday: The moon's day. Luna was the Roman goddess of the moon. – Tuesday: Tiu's day or Mars day. Tiu was the Germanic god of war. Mars was his Roman equivalent. – Wednesday: Woden's day or Mercury's day. Woden/Odin is sometimes described as the supreme Germanic god, but is also associated with the Roman god Mercury. – Thursday: Thor's day or Jove's Day. Thor was the Germanic god of thunder and lightning. Jupiter, or Jove, was the god of the heavens. – Friday: Freya's day or Venus' day. Freya is considered the Germanic equivalent of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. – Saturday: Saturn's day. Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture and of time. The Germanic tribes do not appear to have an equivalent. Greco-Roman Times • Aristotle’s Geocentric Model (or Earth-centered model) – 384BC – 322 BC – Dominated thinking for 2000 years – Earth at the centre of a giant sphere – Stars were attached to a fixed outer sphere – Sun, moon and known planets were attached to inner spheres Greco-Roman Times • Aristotle’s Geocentric Model – Was able to predict the movement celestial bodies that moved in the same direction around the Earth – Did not explain the fact that some planets were observed to sometimes reverse their direction Greco-Roman Times • Ptolemy’s geocentric model – Modified Aristotle’s model by giving planets another level of circular motion called “epicycles” – Successful in describing the sometimes retrograde (or backwards) movement of planets – Video Greco-Roman Times – Journal Entry • Oral story telling has long been a strong familial tradition. These stories are often passed down from generation to generation. You will write a descriptive journal entry in the voice of a Greek or Roman citizen who would have lived between 500BC to 200AD. Your purpose will be to recount a story of the night sky that would have been passed down by members of your family. You might choose to write the story of a constellation, the moon, the sun or a planet. You must make sure that your story is clearly influenced and shaped by the geocentric model of the universe and that it is written using descriptive language that “paints a picture” for the reader.