Contents 1 Our Experience of the Sky and Star Knowledge... 1 The Human Experience of the Sky.... 3 Beginnings... 4 Moon... 5 Mercury... 10 Venus... 11 Sun... 14 SunLore... 18 Mars... 19 Jupiter... 21 Saturn... 24 TheStars... 26 2 A World of Constellations in the Night Sky... 29 A Tour of Constellations North and South.... 29 ArcticSkies and the Northern Circumpolar Stars....................... 31 Ursa Major or The Big Dipper.... 31 Northern Circumpolar Sky from Around the World..... 35 European Circumpolar Constellations..... 35 TheCircumpolarSkyfromAncientChina... 39 Northern Circumpolar Sky from Around the World..... 42 TheArcticInuitSky... 42 The Equatorial Sky... 44 Equatorial Sky from Around the World...... 47 Equatorial Constellations from the European Tradition...... 47 The Equatorial Sky from Around the World.... 60 The Hawaiian and Polynesian Sky... 60 Equatorial Sky from Around the World...... 63 TheNavajoSky... 63 TheChumashSky... 65 The Southern Sky... 68 The Southern Sky from Around the World.... 69 TheAboriginalAustralianSky... 69 The Southern Sky from Around the World.... 74 The Incan Andean Sky.... 74 vii
viii Contents 3 Creation Stories from Around the World... 77 European Creation Stories.... 80 MythicGreekCreationandCosmology... 80 NorseCreationandCosmology... 81 Celtic Stories.... 83 EgyptianCreationStories... 85 Mesopotamian Creation Stories...... 87 AustralianCreationStories... 90 CreationStoriesfromtheAmericas... 91 Mayan Creation... 92 AztecCreation... 93 Hopi and Pueblo Creation... 95 ChumashCreation... 96 InuitCreation... 96 FurtherNativeAmericanCreationTales... 97 4 World Systems: Models of the Universe Throughout Time... 99 CosmologyoftheEgyptians... 101 Babylonian Cosmology..... 103 GreekCosmology... 105 Thales and the Milesian School..... 105 Heraclitus...... 109 Xenophanes..... 109 Empedocles..... 109 Pythagoras...... 110 TheCosmologiesofPlato,Aristotle,andPtolemy... 112 Aristotle... 115 Ptolemy... 116 NorseCosmology... 117 ChineseCosmology... 118 Kai Thien ( Heavenly Canopy ) Cosmology... 120 Hun Thien ( Hen s Egg ) Cosmology... 121 Hsuan Yeh ( Empty Space ) Cosmology... 122 Mayan Cosmology... 123 TheQuicheClassicalMayaCosmology... 123 Incan Cosmology... 124 NativeAmericanCosmology... 126 Hopi and Pueblo Cosmology...... 126 NavajoCosmology... 126 ChumashNativeAmericanCosmology... 128 InuitCosmology... 130 AfricanCosmologies... 131 Dogon Cosmology...... 132 5 Stars That Bind: Civilization, Calendars, and the Sky... 133 Lunar Calendars and Timekeeping.... 134 Neolithic Calendars...... 134 Solar/Lunar Calendars...... 135 The Babylonian Calendar... 136
Contents ix Egyptian Timekeeping.... 137 The Ancient Hebrew Calendar..... 140 The Islamic Calendar..... 141 The Hawaiian Calendar.... 142 The Zuni Calendar...... 143 Native American and Tribal Seasonal Calendars..... 144 Development of the Greek Calendar...... 149 Roman Timekeeping..... 152 Sidereal Lunar and Planetary Calendars...... 154 The Incan Sidereal Year.... 154 Hindu Naksatras and Lunar calendars..... 155 The Chinese Calendar and Zodiac... 157 The Long Run: Cosmic Celestial Timekeeping of the Eons...... 161 Mayan Calendars and the Cycles of the Universe.... 161 TheKin... 162 TheTzolkin... 162 TheHaab... 163 TheKatunandBaktun... 166 Hindu Calendars and the Mahayugas...... 168 6 Modern Timekeeping and the Development of the Science of Time... 169 Shadow Clocks and Sundials... 170 The Earliest 24-h Clocks The Clepsydra.... 172 The Antikythera Mechanism... 175 Mechanical Clocks from Europe..... 176 Pendulum Clocks... 177 Clocks for Navigation..... 179 The Modern Science of Time... 180 Electronic and Atomic Clocks..... 181 SolarTimeorAtomicTime?... 183 Leap Seconds.... 183 Calendar Reform Metric Time and the World Calendar... 185 The French Revolutionary Calendar...... 185 The World Calendar...... 187 7 Celestial Architecture: Monuments of the Sky... 189 Megalithic Alignments...... 189 Stonehenge..... 189 Callanish... 192 Newgrange..... 193 Native American Alignments and Monuments... 195 The Anasazi, Hopi, and Pueblo Kiva...... 195 The Navajo Hogan and Pawnee Lodge..... 196 Solstice Viewing: Shadow and Light in California.... 197 Mounds and Stone Circles in Native American Architecture.... 199 Cahokia Mounds... 201 Chaco Canyon Lunar and Solar Alignments... 202 Celestial Cities from Ancient Civilizations and Their Alignments... 205 Ziggurats in Mesopotamia... 205
x Contents EgyptianPyramids... 207 The Kaaba in Mecca..... 209 Teotihuacan..... 210 Mayan Celestial Cities.... 212 Aztec City of Tenochtitlan and Its Temple Alignment... 215 The Forbidden City of China...... 216 AngkorWat... 218 Temples and the Embodiment of Cosmic Order... 219 The Pantheon of Rome.... 219 The Parthenon of Athens... 221 Cologne Cathedral...... 222 TheLimitsofAlignment... 224 Linear Geometry in Britain... 224 StarMapsfromthePyramids TheOrionMystery... 225 The Nazca Lines... 226 8 The Archaeoastronomy of Modern Civilization... 229 The Archaeoastronomy of Modern Cities..... 229 The Astronomy of Skyscrapers..... 229 Alignments of Modern Cities... 231 Celestial Structures of Today s Civilization.... 234 James Turrell Skyspace and the Rodin Crater Project...... 234 Carhenge...... 237 Modern Stonehenges..... 238 Modern Sundials... 239 The Survival of Ancient Beliefs in Modern Times..... 241 ABriefHistoryofWesternAstrology... 241 IndianAstrology... 248 ChineseAstrology... 250 Why Do People Believe Astrology in the Twenty-First Century?... 255 9 The Development of Modern Cosmology... 257 ScientificCosmology... 258 TheHistoryofScientificCosmology... 261 Nicholas Copernicus..... 261 Tycho Brahe..... 263 Johannes Kepler... 265 Galileo Galilei.... 267 IsaacNewton... 269 TheDawnofAstrophysics... 271 William Herschel... 272 Astronomical Spectroscopy... 275 George Ellery Hale and the Modern Observatory.... 278 Edwin Hubble and the Expanding Universe... 284 A Census of the Modern Universe..... 289 Stars... 289 StarClusters... 290 Normal Galaxies... 292
Contents xi Irregular and Active galaxies...... 294 ClustersofGalaxies... 296 AVeryBriefHistoryofTime BigBangtothePresent... 298 10 Concluding Thoughts... 303 Supplementary Contents... 309 Bibliography... 311 Index of Figures... 317 Index of Tables... 341 Index... 343
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