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Mayan astronomers discover an 18.7-year cycle in the rising and setting of the Moon.From this they created the first almanacs – tables of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets for the use in astrology.
An important contribution by Islamic astronomers was their emphasis on observational astronomy. [49] This led to the emergence of the first astronomical observatories in the Muslim world by the early 9th century. [50] [51] Zij star catalogues were produced at these observatories.
1632 – Galileo Galilei is sometimes credited with the discovery of the lunar libration in latitude, [86] although Thomas Harriot or William Gilbert might have done so before. [87] 1639 – Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend and correspondent William Crabtree are the first astronomers known to observe and record a transit of Venus. [88]
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
The Eddington-Dyson experiments were hardly the first time scientists used eclipses to make profound new discoveries. The idea dates to the beginnings of human civilization.
Italian polymath Galileo Galilei was an early user and made prolific discoveries, including the phases of Venus, which definitively disproved the arrangement of spheres in the Ptolemaic system. Galileo also discovered that the Moon was cratered, that the Sun was marked with sunspots , and that Jupiter had four satellites in orbit around it. [ 13 ]
The following is a list of astronomers, astrophysicists and other notable people who have made contributions to the field of astronomy.They may have won major prizes or awards, developed or invented widely used techniques or technologies within astronomy, or are directors of major observatories or heads of space-based telescope projects.
Ancient Greek astronomy can be divided into three primary phases: Classical Greek Astronomy, which encompassed the 5th and 4th centuries BC, and Hellenistic Astronomy, which encompasses the subsequent period until the formation of the Roman Empire ca. 30 BC, and finally Greco-Roman astronomy, which refers to the continuation of the tradition of ...