Atlas Textbooks Archives - Projeda

The Laws of Planetary Motion

At around the same time that Galileo was observing the heavens with his newly designed telescope and conducting experiments with falling bodies (that would lay the foundations for Classical Mechanics and Gravitation) in the early 1600’s, two other scientists were […]

Chapter III — Orbits and Gravity

In the last 400 years since the mathematical, physical, modular, and theoretical foundations of Modern Astronomy were laid by giants such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton we have made extreme progress in our understanding of the cosmos. However, […]

The Birth of Astronomy — Problem Set

Glossary accelerate/acceleration — to change velocity; to speed up, slow down, or change direction apparent magnitude — a relative measure of how bright a star looks in the sky (i.e. how bright it appears to be from our perspective on […]

The Relationship Between Astronomy and Astrology

Peoples of the ancient world had a strong tendency to see the gods in nature — in the patterns of weather, natural disasters, eclipses of the sun and moon, illness, disease, events of history, and in comets, wandering planets, and […]

How Do We Know The Earth Is Round? [Astronomy Basics]

How do we know the Earth is round? Unfortunately, probably due to the decreasing educational standard in North America, this question has — since it was demonstrated scientifically beyond doubt thousands of years ago — once again risen to prominance. […]

Ancient Astronomy

Ancient Astronomy explores the roots of the study of the stars, as far back as they are documented in the historical record. From the early seafarers, to the Sumerians who first documented the positions of the stars, the Babylonians and […]

Understanding The Sky Above

From our perspective on the surface of the Earth, looking upwards to the Heavens, and the Sky Above, everything that our senses tell us at first glance is that we are in the center of the universe — every shining […]

Chapter II — The Birth of Astronomy

In the world today, by comparison to the long ages of the past, few people look up at the stars anymore. Most of us do not know their names, and even less of us have even the faintest idea of […]

Astronomy Introduction Further Reading

[For Further Reading] Articles Bakich, M., et al. “101 Cosmic Objects You Must See.” Astronomy (January 2022): 6. Talcott, R. “30 Years of Hubble’s Greatest Hits.” Astronomy (March 2020): 18. Books Miller, Ron, and William Hartmann. The Grand Tour: A […]

A Conclusion and a Beginning

[1.9 A Conclusion and a Beginning] If you are new to astronomy, you have probably reached the end of our brief tour in this chapter with mixed emotions. On the one hand, you may be fascinated by some of the […]