FAMOUS ASTRONOMERS

Aristotle

• Influenced psychology
• Contributed Basic ideas
• Psychology & philosophy were intertwined
• Proved the Earth was round

ARISTACHUS

• presented the first known model that placed the Sun
• influenced by Philolaus of Croton
• ideas often rejected for the geocentric theories of Aristotle & Ptolemy
• Had all the planets in the right order

PTOLEMY

• Thought Earth was the center of the universe
• Said he got his geometrical models from selected astronomical studies
• presented a useful tool for astronomical calculations
• Had all data needed to compute the places of the Sun, Moon & planets
• Also had rising & setting of the stars, & eclipses of the Sun & Moon

COPERNICUS

• formulated a heliocentric model of the universe
• It placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center
• Wasn't completely correct
• Changed the way astronomers thought of space

KEPLER

• Made his 3 laws of planetary elliptical motion
• Gave explanation of optical image formation through tiny apertures
• Found that regular polygons bound 1 inscribed & 1 circumscribed circle at definite ratios
• Thought that it might be the geometrical basis of the universe

GALILEO GALILEI

• discovered sunspots and measured the Sun’s rotation
• observed Venus phases
• Found 4 moons of Jupiter
• supported the Copernican system of planetary movement

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• http://users.ipfw.edu/abbott/314/Aristotl.html
• http://explorable.com/aristotles-psychology
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy
• Famous astronomers, space.com link
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler