Our Celestial Clockwork: From Ancient Origins To Modern Astronomy Of The Solar System

Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Prologue
1. How we see the world
	1.1 Preamble
	1.2 Visible light
	1.3 Resolution capacity of human eye
	1.4 The spherical illusion
	1.5 Atmospheric refraction and aberration
	1.6 Why the sky is blue
	1.7 Stereoscopic vision and parallax
	1.8 Perception of brightness and stellar magnitudes
	1.9 Conclusion: Plato’s cave metaphor
2. The visible sky
	2.1 Preamble
	2.2 Stars and constellations
	2.3 The Sun’s diurnal and annual motions
	2.4 The Moon, its motion and phases
	2.5 The planets
	2.6 The Milky Way
	2.7 Comets and meteors
3. The eclipses
	3.1 A satellite or a sister planet?
	3.2 How the Moon moves
	3.3 Why do the eclipses happen?
	3.4 How often do eclipses occur?
	3.5 How long does a solar eclipse last?
	3.6 Measuring the distance to the Moon by parallax
	3.7 Lunar eclipses
	3.8 Occultations
4. Ancient astronomers and mathematicians
	4.1 Preamble
	4.2 Astronomy and astrology
	4.3 Ancient Egypt
	4.4 Ancient Babylon
	4.5 The science of ancient Greece
		4.5.1 Before Aristotle
	4.6 Greek philosophy after Socrates
		4.6.1 Aristotle’s logic
		4.6.2 Aristotle’s physics
		4.6.3 The post-Athenian period
	4.7 Ancient Greek astronomy
	4.8 Ptolemy and his system
	4.9 Science of Medieval Islam
		4.9.1 Mathematics in the Islamic world
		4.9.2 Arab and Islamic astronomy
5. Observers and observatories
	5.1 Preamble
	5.2 First observatories
	5.3 Ancient astronomical devices
	5.4 Medieval Islamic observatories
		5.4.1 The Maragha Observatory
		5.4.2 Ulugh Beg
	5.5 Europe takes over
	5.6 The first telescopes
	5.7 Johann Hevelius
	5.8 John Flamsteed and the Greenwich Observatory
	5.9 William Herschel
6. Measuring time
	6.1 Days and nights, hours and minutes
	6.2 Weeks and months
	6.3 Tropical and sidereal years: Precession
	6.4 The first calendars
	6.5 The Gregorian and improved Julian calendars
7. Measuring space
	7.1 Preamble
	7.2 Thales and Pythagoras
	7.3 Pythagoras and trigonometry
	7.4 Euclidean geometry
	7.5 From a flat to a spherical Earth
	7.6 How Eratosthenes measured the Earth
	7.7 How Aristarchus found distances to the Sun and the Moon
	7.8 Modern parallax measurements
	7.9 Discovering the Globe
		7.9.1 The route to India
		7.9.2 Columbus’ discoveries
		7.9.3 Magellan’s ultimate proof
	7.10 Maps and cartographers
8. The Copernican revolution
	8.1 Copernicus’ life
	8.2 Sources of inspiration
	8.3 The first attempts
	8.4 The Copernican heliocentric system
	8.5 The next five books
	8.6 Critics and enthusiasts
		8.6.1 Religious objections
		8.6.2 Giordano Bruno’s ordeal
9. Tycho Brahe, the prince of astronomers
	9.1 Preamble
	9.2 Tycho Brahe’s life
	9.3 The Uraniborg
	9.4 Two extraordinary events: the nova of 1572 and the comet of 1577
	9.5 The Tychonic system
	9.6 Prague and Kepler
	9.7 Tycho’s legacy
10. Galileo and the new physics
	10.1 Galileo Galilei’s life and achievements
	10.2 Galilean mechanics
		10.2.1 The free fall
		10.2.2 Relativity of motion
	10.3 The telescope and astronomical discoveries
	10.4 The “Dialogo” and its consequences
		10.4.1 The trial
		10.4.2 The last years
11. Kepler and the new astronomy
	11.1 Johannes Kepler’ life and achievements
	11.2 Quest for harmony
	11.3 The limits of the Copernican system
	11.4 How Kepler determined the shape of the Martian orbit
	11.5 The ellipse and its properties
	11.6 Kepler’s laws
		11.6.1 Explaining the epicycles
	11.7 Ahead of his time
		11.7.1 Science beyond astronomy
		11.7.2 Somnium, the first science-fiction novel
12. Newton and universal gravity
	12.1 Preamble: The glorious 17th century
	12.2 Newton’s life and achievements
	12.3 Mathematics
	12.4 Physics
	12.5 Newtonian mechanics
	12.6 Universal gravity
	12.7 Kepler’s laws explained
	12.8 Precession of Earth’s axis and of apsides
	12.9 Critical assessment of Newton’s worldview
13. The tides
	13.1 First observation: Variation of the height of tides
	13.2 Explanation of tides by Newton’s gravity theory
	13.3 Numerical results and the density ratio
	13.4 Physical and astronomical consequences of tides
	13.5 The Roche limit
14. Huygens and Cassini
	14.1 Preamble
	14.2 Huygens’ life and achievements
	14.3 Mathematics and physics
	14.4 Astronomy
	14.5 Determining longitudes and chronometry
	14.6 Cassini’s life and discoveries
	14.7 Cassini’s astronomical discoveries
	14.8 Determining distances in the Solar System
	14.9 Roemer and the speed of light
15. Halley and the transit of Venus
	15.1 Edmond Halley
	15.2 The Halley comet
	15.3 Mercury’s transits
	15.4 The transits of Venus and solar parallax
	15.5 Final estimate of the astronomical unit
16. Cavendish and the Earth’s mass
	16.1 Preamble
	16.2 Henry Cavendish
	16.3 The torsion balance experiment
	16.4 Masses and gravitational constant defined
	16.5 Gravity and planets’ spherical shape
	16.6 Deformation due to rotation
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index