Ancient Thoughts

Ancient man goes from surviving by himself to living

groups .

Ancient Thoughts

Reasons for living in groups:

Survival Safety Cooperation Food

Stars

Stars have always been around. When people looked up – there they were!! As man started to travel – either be boat or foot – people began to notice that certain patterns could be found in other places.

Stars Certain patterns

could be used as points of reference.

As civilizations developed, so did their heroes or idols. Word of their superhuman strength and feats were spread from people to people.

Stories – myths began.

Myths

What better way to honor their heroes than to place the image in the sky for all to see. Cassiopeia, Perseus, Orion, the signs of the Zodiac – Aquarius, Taurus, Gemini, etc.

Thus, evolved the constellations along with their myths/stories.

These constellations and stories are still with us today.

Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia is the legendary queen of Ethopia and wife of the king, Cepheus. The royal couple had a daughter Andromeda who Cassiopeia was forced to offer up to a sea monster because she had offended the sea nymphs boasting about her beauty. Cassiopeia was later transported to the sky, where she sits on her throne and circles the pole.

Cassiopeia

Orion

Orion is the great hunter. He boasted that no animal could defeat him. Orion was the son of Poseidon, the god of the seas. Orion boasted that so great was his might and skill as a hunter that he could kill all the animals on the face of the Earth. Gaea, Goddess of Earth, was alarmed at such a boastful and inappropriate statement. Gaea decided that Orion must be taught a lesson just in case he decided to carry out his boast.

Orion

So, Gaea sent a giant scorpion to Orion and ordered the beast to sting Orion. As mighty as Orion was, after only a brief battle, the scorpion managed to deliver the hunter a deadly sting. Scorpius stung Orion on the heel. Orion and the scorpion were given honored places in the sky, but they were placed at opposite ends of the great sky so that they would never engage in battle again.

Orion

Scorpius

Other Info For thousands of years people have

wondered what the stars are and how they move. The greatest of the early astronomers were the Greeks. They believed that the stars and the planets revolved around the Earth because they were fixed to crystal spheres that were driven by machines.

If they could break through the crystal barrier, they would be able to see the machines behind it that make the universe work. These incorrect ideas lasted over 1,000 years.

Additional Info

Claudius Ptolemaeus was a famous Greek astronomer (person who studied the stars & planets) who lived in the second century A.D. He believed that the Earth was the center of the universe with the sun, moon, planets & stars all revolving around it.

Copernicus in 1543 changed that thinking and proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system and the orbits are in perfect circles.

Additional Info

Galileo in 1604 proved that the Sun was the center of the solar system – he challenged church doctrine and was under house arrest for his life.

Johannes Kepler – concludes that the planets travel in elliptical orbits; not perfect circles.

Vocabulary

Circumpolar – stars which revolve around the North Pole

Polaris is another name for the North Star

Revolution – the movement or orbit of one body around another

Rotation – one complete spin on an axis

Axis – imaginary line on which an object spins

Asterism – a constellation within a constellation