Page:A short history of astronomy(1898).djvu/43

§§ 3—6] approaches the time of sunrise, until the moon becomes altogether invisible. After two or three nights the new moon reappears, and the whole series of changes is repeated. The different forms thus assumed by the moon are now known as her phases; the time occupied by this series of changes, the month, would naturally suggest itself as a convenient measure of time; and the day, month, and year would thus form the basis of a rough system of time-measurement.

5. From a few observations of the stars it could also clearly be seen that they too, like the sun and moon, changed their positions in the sky, those towards the east being seen to rise, and those towards the west to sink and finally set, while others moved across the sky from east to west, and those in a certain northern part of the sky, though also in motion, were never seen either to rise or set. Although anything like a complete classification of the stars belongs to a more advanced stage of the subject, a few star groups could easily be recognised, and their position in the sky could be used as a rough means of measuring time at night, just as the position of the sun to indicate the time of day.

6. To these rudimentary notions important additions were made when rather more careful and prolonged observations became possible, and some little thought was devoted to their interpretation.

Several peoples who reached a high stage of civilisation at an early period claim to have made important progress in astronomy. Greek traditions assign considerable astronomical knowledge to Egyptian priests who lived some thousands of years B.C., and some of the peculiarities of the pyramids which were built at some such period are at any rate plausibly interpreted as evidence of pretty accurate astronomical observations; Chinese records describe observations supposed to have been made in the 25th century B.C.; some of the Indian sacred books refer to astronomical knowledge acquired several centuries before this time; and the first observations of the Chaldaean priests of Babylon have been attributed to times not much later.

On the other hand, the earliest recorded astronomical observation the authenticity of which may be accepted without scruple belongs only to the 8th century B.C.