This post a collection of my class materials which will be posted below the fold. In general, this is a Powerpoint presentation and the script I follow is included in the file.
This class is intended as a broad overview of astronomy throughout the SCA period.
This class was developed for teaching at a middle school demo and is at a much lower level, seeking to tell more of a story than really get into details.
The Almagest was written some time in the 2nd century CE. However, the detailed astronomical models it contained didn’t appear in the western Europe until the 13th-14th centuries. Why the gap of over a thousand years?
Some have blamed this on Christianity, suggesting that it had chilling effect on scientific study at best – or was outright hostile at worst. Christian apologists have argued that Christianity never actually opposed science actually inspired it. Some go so far as to claim it was necessary for science. This talk explores the facts and finds the truth somewhere in the middle.
This is a two part class. The first portion describes the motions of objects in the heavens and begins developing the language we’ll need to describe things in the night sky.
The second portion explores how astronomers describe the celestial sphere with a concept heavy but math light description.
Celestial Navigation
Armed with an understanding of the celestial sphere from the previous class, this class seeks to apply that knowledge to determine an observer’s latitude. It is largely based on an 16th century sailing manual.
This class was designed to be taught at events without use of a projector so does not include a PowerPoint presentation, relying instead on handouts.
One of the things I often tell people about working through the Almagest is that the math isn’t hard. It’s strange. From being in base 60 (sexagesimal), to not being able to use modern trigonometry, to trying to do geometry on the surface of a sphere, there’s many things that just aren’t familiar to us even though they’re conceptually not difficult. This class explores the concepts and techniques necessary to work through the Almagest.
There are two versions of this class.
The first is for presenting solo. In this version, I derive the a solar model from first principles using Ptolemy’s methods. Then, we explore how to use that model to predict the position of the sun on a given date.
In the second version of this class, I remove the derivation and just discuss the quantitative properties of the model and explain how it is used without getting into how that model was developed or how I have updated it for use in present day.
To fill the remaining time in the class, the second half is taught by Pádraigín an Ein i gh who explores the astrological implications of the solar position. Material for her portion of the class is included in the handout but not the PowerPoint.
Ptolemy’s star catalog contains descriptions, coordinates, and brightnesses for $1,025$ stars. But did Ptolemy create this data himself? Or was it stolen from the astronomer Hipparchus $250$ years earlier? This debate has divided the historical astronomical community for over $400$ years. This class lays out the evidence.