Basic Celestial Phenomena

• What are Basic Celestial Phenomena? (about BCP)
• Stars and Constellations begin here
  • Constellations index
• Instruments (make a star clock, etc.)
• Diurnal motion
• The Celestial Sphere
• The Shape of the Earth
  • Flat-Earth woodcut (not a medieval woodcut)
• The Zodiac and planetary motions
• Scale of the Universe
• Internet links and library resources
  • The road to the stars begins at your local library!

 Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I stirring heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

 

The mural quadrant of Tycho Brahe