scholarly journals Archaeoastronomical Aspects of the Archaeological Monuments of Siberia

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1 and 2) ◽  
pp. 109-117
Author(s):  
Leonid Marsadolov
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The North ◽  
Ancient People ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Night Sky

The necessity of astronomical observations for nomadic peoples of Eurasia was based on the sacral meaning of time. The celestial bodies, the Sun and the Moon were parts of cult of the Sky. During annual migrations, in particular those where there were no reliable landmarks, nomads navigated with the North Star and the main constellations of the night sky. Remains left by these nomads, including rock pictures, barrows and observation posts are the legacy of a complex, organised system reflecting the relations of ancient people with the cosmos.

scholarly journals GERBERT OF AURILLAC: ASTRONOMY AND GEOMETRY IN TENTH CENTURY EUROPE

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 467-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
COSTANTINO SIGISMONDI
Keyword(s):  
Rational Approximation ◽  
Equilateral Triangle ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The North ◽  
Celestial Pole ◽  
Gerbert Of Aurillac

Gerbert of Aurillac was the most prominent personality of the tenth century: astronomer, organ builder and music theoretician, mathematician, philosopher, and finally pope with the name of Silvester II (999–1003). Gerbert introduced firstly the arabic numbers in Europe, invented an abacus for speeding the calculations and found a rational approximation for the equilateral triangle area, in the letter to Adelbold here discussed. Gerbert described a semi-sphere to Constantine of Fleury with built-in sighting tubes, used for astronomical observations. The procedure to identify the star nearest to the North celestial pole is very accurate and still in use in the XII century, when Computatrix was the name of Polaris. For didactical purposes the Polaris would have been precise enough and much less time consuming, but here Gerbert was clearly aligning a precise equatorial mount for a fixed instrument for accurate daytime observations. Through the sighting tubes it was possible to detect equinoxes and solstices by observing the Sun in the corresponding days. The horalogium of Magdeburg was probably a big and fixed-mount nocturlabe, always pointing the star near the celestial pole.

scholarly journals Lunar

JOGED ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewi Sinta Fajawati
Keyword(s):  
Full Moon ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Big Bang Theory ◽  
Essential Idea ◽  
Visual Reaction ◽  
Night Sky ◽  
The One

Bulan merupakan sumber inspiratif dalam penggarapan karya tari ini. Secara ilmu pengetahuan, Bulan adalah benda langit yang disebut satelit, satelit satu-satunya yang dimiliki Bumi dan tercipta secara alami. Banyak teori yang mengatakan tentang terbentuknya Bulan, salah satunya adalah teori Big bang atau dentuman besar. Pada dasarnya Bulan hanyalah sebuah Benda besar berbentuk bulat yang tidak bisa bercahaya, cahaya yang kita lihat pada malam hari merupakan refleksi dari cahaya matahari. Akan tetapi keindahannya memang tidak bisa dipungkiri, karena dia paling bercahaya diantara hamparan langit yang gelap. Cahayanya tidak selalu terang, bahkan tidak selalu bulat, terkadang hanya terlihat setengah atau terlihat seperti sabit..            Penata tari memetaforakan objek bulan yang berada di tempat yang sangat tinggi sebagai sebuah cita-cita yang ingin dicapai. Seringkali lagu anak-anak yang menjadi pengalaman auditif penata tari, menjadikan bulan sebagai objek yang ingin digapai, misal lagu ‘Ambilkan Bulan Bu’. Namun intisari yang akan dipakai dalam penggarapan koregrafinya adalah tentang fase bulan yang tercipta. Bersumber dari rangsang awal melihat bulan atau rangsang visual, penata tari menginterpretasikan fase-fase bulan yang terjadi sebagai fase kehidupan yang dijalani untuk menggapai sebuah cita-cita tersebut.            Koreografi diwujudkan dalam bentuk kelompok dengan membagi dua karate penari. Delapan penari merupakan simbolisasi Bulan, dan satu penari sebagai manusia yang bercita-cita. Dengan bentuk tari dramatik, penyajiannya dibagi menjadi 5 adegan, yaitu Introduksi Big bang, Adegan 1 Moon happen, Adegan 2 Mengejar Impian, Adegan 3 Dancing with Moon, dan Ending ‘Catch Your Dream’. The moon is the essential inspirations of this choreograph. Theoretically, the moon is a sky object which is called as satellite. The one and only naturally created satellite belongs to the planet Earth. There are many theories that explain how the moon was created. One of those theories is Big Bang theory or massive crash. Basically, the moon is just a huge circle thing which is unable to shine its glow. The light that we experience in the evening is the reflection of the sun. However, thebeauty of the moonlight is undeniable as it has the significant light within the darkest night sky. Its light is not always the strongest, even it’s not always circle (full), every so often it is seemed only the half part of it or crescent moon.            The choreographer interpreted the moon that belongs in the highest as the goals that she wants to reach. Most of the time, the children songs (lullaby) that pick the moon as the main object that is desired to be reached, for example the song “Ambilkan Bulan, Bu”. The essential idea that is explored in this choreograph is the creational phase of the moon itself. It was started by way of visual reaction when the choreographer observed the moon, she interpret the moon’s phases as the phases in human’s life which are gone through to reaching their goals. Fall and recovery, passionate, and even sometimes they give it in, are interpreted from the moonlight. The full moon which has the brightest and the most perfect light is likened as the strong spirit. The crescent moon with its soft light is interpreted as low spirit and unconfident.             This in-group-choreograph is separated into two characters with 8 female dancers that are the symbolization of the moon and the other one female dancer symbolizes a human with aspire. With dramatic dance form, this choreograph is presented into five parts, including introduction part of Big Bang, Moon Happen in part one, Chasing Dream is part two, Dancing With The Moon in part three, Catch Your Dream in the ending part.

scholarly journals VIII. Astronomical observations. In two letters from M. Francis de Zach, Professor of Mathematics, and Member of the Royal Academies of Sciences at Marseilles, Dijon, and Lyons, to Mr. Tiberius Cavallo, F. R. S

1785 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 137-152
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Vernal Equinox ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Pendulum Clock ◽  
Jupiter’S Satellites

Sir, I send you the account of the observations on the eclipse of the moon, which I have made together with the rev. Father Le Fevre, Astronomer at Lyons, in the Observatory called au grand Collège ; to which I shall add the observations of the vernal equinox; some observation son Jupiter's satellites, made at Marseilles by M. Saint Jacques de Sylvabelle; and, lastly, a new solution of a problem that occurs in computing the orbits of comets. If you think that these observations do in any way deserve the notice of the Royal Society, I ascertain the going of the pendulum clock, I took several corresponding altitudes of the sun, which you will find in the following table.On the day of the eclipse the sky was very serene, nothing could be finer, and it continued so during the observation.

scholarly journals The Antikythera Mechanism: The oldest mechanical universe in its scientific milieu

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S260) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xenophon Moussas
Keyword(s):  
Main Part ◽  
Accurate Prediction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stationary Points ◽  
Analogue Computer ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Celestial Sphere ◽  
Astronomical Instrument

AbstractIn this review the oldest known advanced astronomical instrument and dedicated analogue computer is presented, in context. The Antikythera Mechanism a mysterious device, assumed to be ahead of its time, probably made around 150 to 100 BCE, has been found in a 1st century BCE shipwreck near the island of Antikythera in a huge ship full of Greek treasures that were on their way to Rome. The Antikythera Mechanism is a clock-like device made of bronze gears, which looks much more advanced than its contemporary technological achievements. It is based on mathematics attributed to the Hipparchus and possibly carries knowledge and tradition that goes back to Archimedes, who according to ancient texts constructed several automata, including astronomical devices, a mechanical planetarium and a celestial sphere. The Antikythera Mechanism probably had a beautiful and expensive box; looking possibly like a very elaborate miniature Greek Temple, perhaps decorated with golden ornaments, of an elegant Hellenistic style, even perhaps with automatic statuettes, ‘daemons’, functioning as pointers that performed some of its operations. Made out of appropriately tailored trains of gears that enable to perform specialised calculations, the mechanism carries concentric scales and pointers, in one side showing the position of the Sun in the ecliptic and the sky, possibly giving the time, hour of the day or night, like a clock. The position of the Moon and its phase is also shown during the month. On the other side of the Mechanism, having probably the size of a box (main part 32×20×6 cm), are two large spiral scales with two pointers showing the time in two different very long calendars, the first one concerning the eclipses, and lasting 18 years 11 days and 8 hours, the Saros period, repeating the solar and lunar eclipses, and enabling their prediction, and the 19 year cycle of Meton, that is the period the Moon reappears in the same place of the sky, with the same phase. An additional four-year dial shows the year of all Greek Festivities, the so-called ‘games’ (Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian etc). Two additional dials give the Exeligmos, the 54 year and 34 day cycle, which provides a more accurate prediction of eclipses. It is possible that the Mechanism was also equipped with a planetary show display, as three of the planets and their motion (stationary points) are mentioned many times in the manual of the instrument, so it was also a planetarium. From the manual we have hints that the mechanism was probably also an observational instrument, as having instructions concerning a viewfinder and possibly how to orient the viewfinder to pass a sunbeam through it, probably measuring the altitude of the Sun. There are fragmented sentences that probably give instructions on how to move the pointers to set the position of the Sun, the Moon and the planets in their initial places in the ecliptic, on a specific day, or how to measure angular distances between two celestial bodies or their coordinates. This mechanism is definitely not the first one of its kind. The fact that it is accompanied with instructions means that the constructor had in its mind to be used by somebody else and one posits that he made at least another similar instrument.

scholarly journals Stars and Cultural Astronomy

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-133
Author(s):  
Bernadette Brady
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Night Sky

Stars are ubiquitous; the Sun and Moon are singletons. The Sun and the Moon visually dominate the sky. They change in the amount of light they produce, either monthly or yearly. They also rhythmically change how they embrace the horizon, creating a measure of time and seasons. In contrast, the stars are many and their light is small. Their place in the sky is fixed and, ignoring precession, their relationship to the horizon is constant, always rising or setting at the same point. They are different in almost every way to the luminaries, in their multiplicity, light, fixed spatial relationship to each other and fixity in a landscape. These distinct characteristics mean that the stars are a catalyst for sky narratives quite different from those of the luminaries. The most easily recognisable stellar sky narratives are the constellation stories. The multiplicity of the stars produces a scattering of lights across the night sky according to a fixed pattern which, to the human mind - with its apophenia, the tendency to see patterns - results in the heavens becoming a vast storyboard of constellations and clusters. These stories are placed on bright stars, dim stars, coloured stars, dark gaps or voids, and milky hazes. Every spot of the dome of the heavens holds some culture's myth, some culture's cosmic narrative, and every visible place in the dome of the heavens has been claimed by most cultures. Their consistency of movement and fixedness in orientation to each other, however, also offer humanity something quite unique: a view of eternity.

scholarly journals Gudernes rum og menneskenes univers. I de mayatalende lakandoneres verdenssyn

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Odile Marion
Keyword(s):  
Rain Forest ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Symbolic Representations ◽  
Social Forms ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cosmic Space ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
The One

In their mythology, the Lacandons - Indians living in the rain forest of Chiapas, Mexico - conceptualise a tripartite space of heaven, earth, and the underworld. The Lacandons perceive themselves as placed by the gods in the middle of a cosmic space that is created, delimitated and controlled by the two great celestial bodies: the couple of sun and moon. Through a detailed analysis of the symbolic representations of the sun and the gods of wind and rain, it is shown how all the most important features of the Lacandon universe is thought of as the outcome of complex interactions between solar and lunar principles. On the one hand, the workings of the sun (male) and the moon (female) create and recreate the essential qualities of the meteorological, climatic, and ecological spaces that constrain the forms of productive life. On the other hand, the Indians conceptualise the opposition, the alternation, and the complimentarity that characterise the relations between sun and moon as homological to the social forms of Lacandon reproduction. The ambivalent, complex, and multifacetted dialectics of lunar and solar principles reveal that cosmic equilibrium centres round the male-female bipolarity. It is argued that although the male qualities of the sun are considered higher and dominant, it is in faet the mythic image of the moon that metaphorises stability, completeness and totality.

scholarly journals ATTRIBUTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CELESTIAL BODIES IN THE MIDDLE POLISIAN BELIEFS

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-110
Author(s):  
Antonina Plechko
Keyword(s):  
Local Population ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
The World ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Bad Weather ◽  
Diverse Groups

The article analyzes the attributive characteristics of celestial bodies: the sun, the moon and the stars in the Middle Polisian beliefs on the basis of dialect texts, which are valuable authentic material for the reconstruction of traditional spiritual culture. The research material was the texts of field research on inanimate objects collected in the territory of the Middle Polissia of Ukraine in 55 settlements of Zhytomyr and Rivne regions during 2010–2019 years. The purpose of our research is to describe tokens that are means of reflecting the attributive characteristics of the nomination of celestial bodies in the Middle Polisian dialects as one of the components of the linguistic picture of the world of a separate dialect space. The subject of analysis is the lexical and syntactic expression of the attributes of the sun, the moon and the stars in the beliefs of Polishchuks (local population of Polisian region. In the research the method of expeditionary collection of material, audio recordings with subsequent decoding and transcription of field material, the method of systematic description of the studied phenomenon for systematizing the collected material were used. The classification of attributes is given and the analysis of meteorological, color, sacred, temporal meanings, on external signs (on the size, on the form) is carried out. The results of the study indicate that the most filled and diverse groups of attributes that make up the Middle Polisian linguistic portrait of the characteristics of celestial bodies are meteorological and color definitions. Meteorological, temporal, external attributes enter into antonymous relations, as they contain in their semantic structure the corresponding positive / negative evaluative element (weather / bad weather). The color attributes, associated with the sun and the moon, are represented only by light and bright colors, there are no dark colors. While describing celestial bodies, we note a group of sacred meanings and adjectives with a gentle color, the suffix of diminution, which indicate a special perception of celestial bodies by Polishchuks. The collected material only partially reflects the characteristics of celestial bodies in the Middle Polisian dialects as one of the components of the linguistic picture of the world, so other means of reflecting the nomination of the sun, moon and stars require detailed study.

scholarly journals The emergence of the idea of a spherical sun in Greek science and philosophy

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-250
Author(s):  
Dmitri Panchenko
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Early Recognition ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The North ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Reflected Light ◽  
Good Account ◽  
Circular Outline

According to a standard idea of Greek science and philosophy, the shape of the sun is spherical. Such an idea appears already in Aristotle who offers, however, no good account for it, and only Stobaeus cites an authority, or rather collective authority, the Pythagoreans, for an early recognition of the idea in question. The ancient tradition left no direct evidence of how the sphericity of the sun was recognized, and the issue attracted very little attention in modern scholarship. I propose that in the late sixth century new empirical knowledge about the sun reached the Aegean and Italy. Some people who crossed the northern tropic repeatedly observed the sun from its ‘other’ side, for in the height of the summer an observer located south of the northern tropic saw the midday sun in the north. This made impossible Anaximander’s idea of the sun as a body containing fire and having one aperture and triggered a search for a better version. Since the sun invariably displayed a circular outline at any time, at any place and on all sides of the horizon, one had to consider the possibility that its shape was either spherical or ‘bowl-like’. The study of lunar light that led to the discovery of the sphericity of the moon was also helpful. The doctrine of a spherical sun was firmly established by the consensus of professional astronomers rather than due to an initiative by an outstanding thinker; however, one may think that Parmenides contributed to it. A spherical sun cannot be a sphere of fire – without a container, fire would have dispersed. This problem brought about a number of theories that treated the sun as a kind of mirror, etc. Further, a spherical sun that issues a reflected light was recognized to have been a solid and hence a heavy body, which contributed to approaching the spheres of the Sun, Moon and Earth in a similar way and making the Earth a planet.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION OF THE IMAGE OF THE SKY (“TENGER”) IN DAURIAN CULTURE

2021 ◽  
pp. 82-90
Author(s):  
◽  
LI PING ◽  
BAZAR D. TSYBENOV ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Solar Origin ◽  
Ancient People

The article studies the historical transformation of the image of the sky in Daurian culture. The authors analyze the myths and shamanistic rituals of the Daur people. The concept of the sky - “tenger” - refers not only to the sky itself, but also to the tops of deer horns, tree tops, the upper part of human and horse’s heads. The authors compare the Daurian and Buryat shamanistic rituals and reveal many similar points. They come to the conclusion that the ancient people worshiped the image of “tenger” as the sun and the moon. After the Neolithic period, “tenger” worship was expressed in the totemistic cult of eagle. The cult of horse was also associated with the sky worship; Daurs sacrificed white horses and bulls to the sky. The authors find out the solar origin of the fairytale heroes of some Daurian myths as well. The sun also appeared as mother in mythical representation. Ancient people considered the sun and the moon as a man and a woman respectively. In the period of matriarchy, when paired marriages arose, there appeared the Daurian myth of marriage of two siblings to two celestial fairies (dakini)...

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