Astronomy through the ages
Astronomy
is from the Greek
"the classifying of stars".
Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences - the earth's earliest inhabitants knew something about the sky. They knew the sun gave them light and heat; they learned to measure time by the position of the sun and by the shape of the moon.
Early farmers watched for the change in seasons to know when to plant different crops. For many thousands of years many people believed that the Earth lay at the centre of the cosmos and that the heavens were the home of gods and other mythical creatures.
Read more on the history of astronomy
Read more about astronomers through time...