-
The oldest known recording of a lunar eclipse took place at Ur more than 4000 years ago.
-
Hesiod's poem The Works and Days contains practical astronomical advice for navigation and for agricultural activities.
-
The eclipse took place during a battle between the Lydians and the Persians. They were so stunned by the eclipse they ended the battle.
-
In Anaximenes model the stars are fixed to the inside of a solid vault surrounding the Earth. Later Greek astronomers develop this idea into the concept of the celestial sphere.
-
The model of Pythagoras used circular paths for the celestial bodies and assumed most celestial bodies are spheres.
-
Eudoxus's explanation involved the rotation of spheres in opposite directions. This geocentric model had the Earth at its center.
-
Aristotle used a number of proofs that the Earth is a sphere, including the observation that its shadow on the Moon during lunar eclipses is always a circle
-
Eratosthenes uses observations of the altitude of the Sun to find the circumference of the Earth. His estimate may have been accurate to within a few percent.
-
Hipparchus compared his own observations with earlier ones to discover precession, the slow change in the direction of the Earth's polar axis. He also made what was probably the first catalog of the positions and brightnesses of the stars.
-
Plains Indians of North America built medicine wheels, monuments made of piles of stones. Alignments in the medicine wheels often pointed toward the direction of sunrise at the winter solstice
-
Chinese astronomers observed a supernova that was visible in the daytime. The matter blasted outward by the supernova later became observable as the Crab Nebula.
-
The appearance of Comet Halley in 1066 was considered an ill omen for Harold, King of England. Later that year Harold was killed in the Norman invasion of England.
