4.Main Content
Astronomy
Introduction
Astronomy can be taught in many ways. Here we use an historical approach, starting with the early Greeks, which shows how science explanations can be built from careful and systematic observations.
We include experiments which involve observations of the night sky and demonstrations of the models which have been proposed to explain them. We also follow progress from the revolutionary ideas of Copernicus through to the many predictions and explanations that followed from Newton's theory of gravitation.
The observations that we suggest require nothing more than the naked eye or a pair of binoculars. The demonstration models can be contrived from equipment found in a basic school laboratory.
Experiment collections
- Observational astronomy
- Greek astronomy
- Early astronomical measurements
- The Copernican revolution
- Kepler’s laws
- Planetary motion and gravity
Guidance
- Teaching aids
- The motion of the Sun
- Observing the night sky
- Early astronomical observations
- A (very) brief history of astronomy
- Greek evidence for the Earth's shape and spin
- Kepler’s Laws
- Planets in the Copernican system
- What pushes planets along?
Updated 2 Feb 2009
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