The Almagest

  • A History of The Constellations

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 33, Number 2. As we look up at the night sky, we see patterns of stars. For many of us these patterns are familiar, and most were identified by the ancients a few thousand years ago. We recognize the constellations and asterisms such as Orion, The Big and Small Dippers, Scorpius,…

  • The Copernican Revolution

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 31, Number 1. Back in the old days, people would look up at the sky. They noticed that the Sun and the stars would rise in the east and set in the west. From month to month the stars would follow a similar patter as they rose earlier and set earlier…