Astronomy in ancient civilizations
Babylonians:
Today, Babylonians, who established one of the first civilizations in the lands where Iraq is located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, were engaged in agriculture as well as trade between the Far East, Europe and Egypt, and in this way, they carried out cultural exchange between the societies they trade.
According to the records, BC. They made the position observations of many stars in 2000 and recorded them (Picture 1). They divided the sky into regions for systematic observations and gave each region the names of animals or objects formed by stars. They make up more than half of the constellations we use today. See the list of constellations at the end of the book and their location on the celestial chart.
Babylonians have observed Mercury and Venus planets a lot. Since their angle of extension with the sun was small, they increasingly concluded that they were moving around the Sun. Moreover, Babylonians showed the planet Venus with the double crescent symbol in their records. According to this, Babylonians probably knew that Venus showed phases. The phases of Venus cannot be observed without tools today.
According to the records of Venus showing phases, it was first by Galileo M.S. It was observed with a telescope in 1610. In one possibility, Babylonians observed that Venus showed phases with lens-like devices some 3000 years before Galileo, they understood that this was related to the reflection of sunlight and Venus made an orbital motion around the Sun.
Most of the observation records pertaining to Babylon are for astrological purposes. In addition to a large number of stars, the Moon, Sun, Mercury and Venus planets, positional observations of the movements of the then known planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were also made. With these observations, the retrograde movements and conjunction periods of the planets in the sky from time to time were found.
B.C. Astronomy reached its highest level in Babylon in the 5th and 6th centuries. They determined that the lunar and solar eclipses, which they observed systematically for a long time, were periodic and that this period, known as the Saros period, was 18 years and 10 days.
Babylonian star calendar:
The most important contribution of Babylonians to observational astronomy is M.O. The Kidinnu charts regarding the positions of the Moon, which were completed and recorded in 380. These charts are very important as they enable the calculation of the first appearance time of the Moon after the new-Moon phase. These charts, which take into account the irregularities in the visible movement of the moon with great accuracy, have been written in BC. The fact that it was built in 380 shows how advanced astronomy was in Babylonians. (Picture 2)
The advanced astronomical knowledge of Babylonians based on observations formed the basis of ancient Greek astronomy. Although Babylonians adversely affected humanity by causing the birth and development of astrology, they formed the basis of science in this field with their contributions to modern astronomy.
