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European cosmology

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Star Maps

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Abstract

Two cosmological models predominated in early European astronomy: the geocentric model, which placed the Earth in the center of the universe, and the heliocentric model, which placed the Sun in the center. Along the way there have been hybrids, but in all cases either our planet or our Sun has been in the center (or close to the center) of everything. This ‘‘everything’’ was skewed toward our solar system, in that the orbits of the Sun, Moon, and known planets were featured in individual concentric spheres, with all the stars lumped together in the next sphere, followed by a few additional spheres representing heaven. We now know that our Sun and its planets are located near the edge of a galaxy of billions of stars, and that our galaxy itself is just one of a plethora of other galaxies expanding from each other, with no clear center. But this understanding was not developed until the last century, so it is not relevant for most of the star maps we will be discussing in this book.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, San Francisco, USA

    Nick Kanas M.D. (Professor Emeritus)

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  1. Nick Kanas M.D.
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Kanas, N. (2012). European cosmology. In: Star Maps. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0917-5_3

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