Carefully organized and generously illustrated, the book can teach readers how to do real astronomy using the methods of ancient astronomers.

1. The birth of astronomy 2. The celestial sphere 3. Some applications of spherics 4. Calendars and time reckoning 5. Solar theory 6. The fixed stars 7. Planetary theory Appendix: patterns for models Notes Bibliography

James EvansProfessor of Physics, University of Puget Sound, Washington

"The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy is one of the most exciting and original books ever written on ancient, as well as medieval and Renaissance, astronomy, indeed, on the history of science. Here, for the first time, the reader can learn not only about ancient astronomy, but how to do ancient astronomy. The breadth of coverage is encyclopedic, from the Babylonians and Greeks, Ptolemy in particular, through Arabic astonomers of the middle ages, to Copernicus and Kepler. James Evans writes with an understanding and clarity that guides the reader through two thousand years of astronomy so that it is, as it were, brought back to life and can be understood as thoroughly as modern science. This is an ideal way to write the history of science and to learn the history of science." --N.M. Swerdlow, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago |k No