Rudimentary methods were made for predicting when eclipses would happen. It's only been fairly recently, in the last few thousand years, that we learned about eclipses of the sun depending on the motion of the moon. It was primarily an astronomical observatory to indicate the date of the two equinoxes and other significant celestial periods. Right image: Machu Picchu is a city located high in the Andes Mountains in modern Peru. In some grisly situations, there were sacrifices, and not always pigs and dogs and other animals, but human sacrifices as well. Beyond that most civilizations had some sort of mythology about the sun whether it was a deity of some sort or a super-natural force that had to be respected. Historically, humans were thought to be the center of everything and the acts that were performed made them responsible for keeping everything going in this eternal cycle through the seasons and through the years. They also learned that the equinoxes meant a change over to spring or fall would soon occur. When it is low in the sky, it is winter and it is cold. When it is high up in the sky, it is summer and it is warm. Early civilizations learned about seasonal changes in the sky very early on. The Pyramid of Kukúlcan marks the two equinoxes where a snake appears to crawl down the temple.įor most of human history the sun has been an object of mystery, of reverence and sometimes, of fear. ![]() Left image: The Mayan culture in Mexico focused on astronomical almanacs that rigidly controlled behavior and religious ceremony. It also provides all of our light and heat, which gives us the wonderful climates that we have around the world." "Obviously, we're really curious about it. Sten Odenwald, an astronomer at Goddard Space Flight Center, tells us that we study the sun because it's the brightest thing in our universe. Mankind, throughout the centuries, has tried to understand this "ball of fire" in the sky. Amazing, magnetic, frightening, powerful, beautiful, and spectacular are just a few words that describe the star that nourishes our planet.
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