Astronomy As a Natural Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Astronomy As a Natural Science - Essay Example The cosmology  encompasses the study of the universe as a whole. Such prehistoric cultures include the Nubian and Egyptian monuments and other early civilizations such as the Iranians, Maya, Chinese, Greeks, Babylonians and the Indians. There was the need to invent the telescope before astronomy made it into the modern science. Astronomy has historically included disciplines ranging from astrometry, observational astronomy, celestial navigation and the making of calendars (Trumper, pg. 11). Currently, astronomy is considered synonymous with astrophysics. In the twentieth century, astronomy split into theoretical and observational branches. Observation astronomy focus on acquiring data from various observations of astronomical objects that is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. On the other hand, theoretical astronomy is oriented towards computer development or analytical models that describe the astronomical phenomena and objects (Renner et al., pg. 618). Thomas Harrio t was the first person, four centuries ago, to look like a celestial object using a microscope. He used his simple Dutch trunk telescope to view the moon in the late 1600s and made drawings of the observations (Basu and Matzner, N. p. 115). Thomas was operating within the same time as Galileo and actually, Thomas did his observation before Galileo. Both Galileo and Thomas were astronomers. They spent time in studying celestial bodies more so the moon. They both developed an interest in studying the lunar. Unlike Galileo, Harriot did not publish his observational drawing though he was able to share his telescopic findings with a group of English correspondents. They both drew â€Å"moon maps† and they believed to be the geographical surface of the moon to be (Hyslop, pg. 293). The type of moon maps, in this case, is well illustrated in some literature writings such as in the School of Night where a letter is missing and the search result to the discovery of buried gold and cod ed maps (Bayard, 2010). This book was written in the 16th century. These coded maps are actually some of the drawings by Thomas and Galileo.