Astronomy is a natural science that is the

study of celestial objects (such as moons,

planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies), the
physics, chemistry, mathematics, and
evolution of such objects, and phenomena
that originate outside the atmosphere of
Earth, including supernovae explosions,
gamma ray bursts, and cosmic background
radiation. A related but distinct subject,
cosmology, is concerned with studying the
universe as a whole.
 Astronomy is not to be confused with
astrology, the belief system which
claims that human affairs are
correlated with the positions of celestial
objects. Although the two fields share a
common origin they are now entirely
distinct.
 A star-forming region in the Large
Magellanic Cloud, an irregular galaxy.

A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab

Nebula, a supernova remnant
Sub-Fields of Observational Astronomy:
Radio astronomy
Infrared astronomy
Optical astronomy
Ultraviolet astronomy
X-ray astronomy
Gamma-ray astronomy
Fields not based on the electromagnetic
spectrum
Astrometry and celestial mechanics
 Galileo-Galilei

The most important astronomer of all time turns out to be the Italian spearhead of the Scientific Revolution,
Galileo. Galileo was, in a sense, a lucky astronomer. To put it simply, he was fortunate to be alive when the
telescope was invented (around 1607 AD). He caught wind of this amazing new device, and quickly made his
own refracting telescope. This gave him absolutely unprecedented access to information on the heavens– and
he was the first to capitalize on it. While military leaders across Europe were using the spyglasses to watch
their enemies at sea, Galileo turned his telescope to the sky and discovered secrets that had lay waiting for
millennia.

Because Galileo lived and worked at such an opportune time, he is considered by most to be the father of
modern observational astronomy (not to mention the father of modern physics). Many aspects of his life lend
themselves to this title. He was the first to lay eyes on the Rings of Saturn (though they looked more like
handles from his perspective), and he also discovered and named various moons of Jupiter. He was also the
first to observe sunspots, which was rather significant, because it was then believed by the church that the sun
was perfect and without blemishes of any kind.
 Hipparchus

Widely believed to be the greatest astronomer of antiquity, Hipparchus

can easily be viewed as a sort of founding father of astronomy. His most
important contribution to the field was the first known star
catalogue, which historians think he was inspired to construct after
viewing a supernova. This star catalogue was later used extensively by
Ptolemy in his astronomical observations. His other contributions
include important findings on the positions and motions of the moon
and Sun. Using trigonometry – a subject for which he is basically credited
for inventing – he was able to measure the distance to the moon during a
solar eclipse. He is also known for creating the method by which a star’s
brightness is measured, a system still in use today.
 Edwin Hubble
Hubble is credited with discovering galaxies outside of our own Milky
Way. Although the race to solve this mystery had contributions from
many different scientists, it was Hubble’s observations through the
Hooker telescope, around the year 1923, that proved to the scientific
community that there was more to outer space than the Milky Way. In
essence, with one finding, Hubble ballooned the Universe from a galaxy
of about a hundred thousand light years across, with approximately one
hundred billion stars, to an indefinite expanse of intergalactic space,
billions of light years across, and with a seemingly infinite amount of
stars.
 Johannes Kepler William Herschel

A fascinating side-note to his astronomical career

Kepler was a German astronomer and was was the fact that Herschel built his own reflecting
the first to fully explain the motion of the telescopes. He used his self-made telescopes to
planets of our solar system. observe binary systems of stars, in which two stars
orbit around a common center of gravity in a bound
system. Johannes KeplerKepler was a German
astronomer and was the first to fully explain the
motion of the planets of our solar system.
 ASTRONOMY
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