Gemini (constellation) - Gemini in The History of Astronomy

Gemini in The History of Astronomy

In Meteorologica (1 343b30) Aristotle mentions that he observed Jupiter in conjunction with and then occulting a star in Gemini. This is the earliest known observation of this nature. A study published in 1990 suggests the star involved was 1 Geminorum and the event took place on 5 December 337 BC.

When William Herschel discovered Uranus on 13 March 1781 it was located near Eta Geminorum. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh exposed a series of photographic plates centred on Delta Geminorum and discovered Pluto.

Read more about this topic:  Gemini (constellation)

Famous quotes containing the words history and/or astronomy:

    False history gets made all day, any day,
    the truth of the new is never on the news
    False history gets written every day
    ...
    the lesbian archaeologist watches herself
    sifting her own life out from the shards she’s piecing,
    asking the clay all questions but her own.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.
    Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)