10-20-2009, 12:08 PM
It's been a long time since I read anything on that topic, but it seems to me from my faded memory, that they really had no idea what stars and planets were, and regarded the visible planets as stars that travelled in a predictable path. I'm pretty sure they didn't get the vastness of space, nor the notion that stars were distant suns, and planets were different, distant worlds. It wasn't until much later, with the invention of the telescope, that many of these mysteries began to be unraveled.
However, being good observers, the ancients noticed that stars "twinkle" and planets do not. I doubt they understood the differing diffraction of emitted light vs. reflected light, but they were able to see the difference, of course. And they were able to note how the seasons corresponded to certain star patterns, which we call constellations, coincided with seasons. That they assigned attributes to those constellations and assigned to them "powers to affect people and things" persists to this day, in spite of plenty of good science to contradict that notion.
However, being good observers, the ancients noticed that stars "twinkle" and planets do not. I doubt they understood the differing diffraction of emitted light vs. reflected light, but they were able to see the difference, of course. And they were able to note how the seasons corresponded to certain star patterns, which we call constellations, coincided with seasons. That they assigned attributes to those constellations and assigned to them "powers to affect people and things" persists to this day, in spite of plenty of good science to contradict that notion.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
