General Websites

 

In general, there are articles in Wikipedia on almost everything and everyone we will talk about. For example, see the articles on the Almagest¸ Ptolemy, Hipparchus, and Greek astronomy. These articles are a good place to start but by no means the last or best word on any subject, and as you learn the field you will notice many questionable statements and outright mistakes (which on Wikipedia you are free to correct, by the way), but they are generally useful nonetheless. In particular, they often point or link to excellent websites related to their subject.

 

From time to time in my lectures I will be showing computer animations of ancient planetary models. These animations, as well as copies of my papers on ancient astronomy, can all be found on my website.

 

In no particular order:

 

Ø     the History of Astronomy webpages of Robert Harry van Gent. See in particular the pages on Almagest ephemeredes page.

 

Ø     the 3D graphics and videos from Mogi Vicentini illustrating many things of astronomical interest.

 

Ø     the complete text of Strabo’s Geography translated into English:

Ø     Books 1‑7, 15‑17 in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones (1924), at LacusCurtius

Ø     Books 6‑14 in English translation, ed. H. L. Jones (1924), Perseus Digital Library

Ø     For our purposes, Books 1-2 are the ones with interesting astronomical content

 

Ø     the complete text in English of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. Book II has the astronomy material.

 

Ø     History of the Constellations with a wealth of information about each constellation.

 

Ø     Helmer Aslaksen’s page Heavenly Mathematics & Cultural Astronomy with a huge number of links to many other very interesting sites.

 

Ø     Gary Thompson’s pages on Constellations and Star Names

 

Ø     Favorite Astronomy Links as compiled by Joe Tenn at Sonoma State University

 

Ø     Models of Planetary Motion from Antiquity to the Renaissance by Craig Sean McConnell at Cal State Fullerton

 

Ø     Some really nice software for astronomy, some of it free.

 

Ø     SkyMap Pro v 8, the planetarium program I will use in the lectures.

 

Ø     Links to many other planetarium software programs.

 

Ø     Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA. Most are from telescopes but a few are naked eye things that we will discuss.

 

 

And there are no doubt dozens more very good websites, so if you find one, please let me know.