1. Announcements First exam is one week from Wednesday. Will cover chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. Probably won’t get through all of Chapter 5 but we will get to some of it. I’ll let you know how much next Monday. Sample questions have been posted. Format will be 15 MC’s (3 points each) and 3 essays (18 points each) from a list of 5. Open Book! For Wednesday: finish Chapter 4

2. The fall of Rome opened a “Dark Age” for astronomy in Europe Anicius Boethius (Saint Severinus) attempted to translate many of the works of the Greeks into Latin in the 4 th & 5 th centuries but was executed by a tyrant after completing only a few works on logic

3. Calcidius translated many of the works of Plato Plato’s Timaeus outlines the cosmological myth of ancient Greece

4. The best “text” on astronomy was by Martianus Capella Astronomy was one of the seven liberal arts The Marriage of Philology and Mercury

5. Martianus Capella actually proposed Mercury and Venus went around the Sun

6. Eventually, Greek is no longer taught and the original works are lost Most of Europe becomes more concerned with the Crusades than with learning

7. The need for an accurate calendar kept astronomers employed The Venerable Bede, an English monk and “timekeeper” worked out the date for Easter for 532 years (28 Metonic Cycles of 19 years)

8. The “Problem” of the date of Easter wouldn’t be solved until 1582

9. Gerbert of Aurillac Brought the astrolabe to Europe through his visits to Spain Later established center of learning at Reims

10. By the 12 th Century translators were starting to translate many of the ancient works into Latin Gerard of Cremona is credited with translating over seventy works including the Toledan Tables of al-Zarqali

11. The Europeans even began to invent their own astronomical instruments Invented by Levi ben Gerson around 1300, the cross-staff allows measurement of the angle between two objects

12. With more instruments came more sophistication

13. As measurements improved, there was a need to recalculate the astronomical tables using the Almagest Alphonsine Tables commissioned by King Alphonse of Spain in the 14 th Century

14. The invention of the printing press brings a revolution to astronomy

15. Reliable texts on astronomy could be produced Frontispiece to Regiomontanus’ Epitome of the Almagest first published in 1496

16. As more texts became available to more people, questions arose Aristotle’s explanation for the flight of an arrow was patently absurd As they began to question Aristotle’s explanations for terrestrial motion, so too they questioned his (and other Greeks) explanation for celestial motions