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The Vault of Heaven

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Challenges of Astronomy

Abstract

Many observers of the sky in early civilizations, such as ancient China and Greece before the Christian era, depicted the sky as a great spherical chamber on which the stars were emblazoned and within which the Sun, Moon, and planets moved. But not all ancient observers agreed on that perception. The shape of the sky is a subjective notion, conditioned by cultural, psychological, and physiological factors. It has sometimes been depicted as a flat concave bowl, as in Fig. 1.1.

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References

  • Becker, Fr. (1980) Geschichte der Astronomie. Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim.

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Schlosser, W., Schmidt-Kaler, T., Milone, E.F. (1991). The Vault of Heaven. In: Challenges of Astronomy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4434-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4434-9_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8769-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4434-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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