Search Results: List of astronomical topics

Hipparchus of Nicea (l. c. 190 - c. 120 BCE) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician regarded as the greatest astronomer of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time. He is best known for his discovery of the precession...

The term 'mythology' comes from the Greek mythos (story-of-the-people) and logos (word or speech), meaning the spoken story of a people. Every civilization of the ancient world developed a belief system, which is characterized as 'mythology'...

The gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt were an integral part of the people's everyday lives for over 3,000 years. There were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon, many whose names are well known - Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor...

The Sassanian Empire (224-651) was the greatest expression of Persian culture in the ancient world. It was consciously modeled on the earlier Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) which established Persian supremacy in the region and developed...

A print showing one of the astronomical telescopes built by Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) in Danzig in the 1640s. Helevius used such devices to map the surface of the Moon. (Harvard University)

The Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) was the first great Persian political entity in Western and Central Asia which stretched, at its peak, from Asia Minor to the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia through Egypt. It was founded by Cyrus II (the...

A diagram created by the famous Iranian polymath Al-Biruni (973 – after 1050) depicting a Lunar Eclipse.

Clava Cairns is an early Bronze Age site in Scotland, located east of the city of Inverness, consisting of three well-preserved cairns (two of which are passage graves) and a number of free-standing stones strategically placed for astronomical...

Hellenistic astrology encompassed various forms of divination in Greece and the Mediterranean, all linked to the observation of astronomical phenomena. Hellenistic astrology was based on the belief that the stars and planets could either...

A pharaoh was known primarily by his throne name. This was traditionally a statement about his divine father, the sun-god Ra, so all cartouches with throne names display a sun-god at the top. A king's birth name was the only name he had already...