Our Celestial Clockwork:From Ancient Origins to Modern Astronomy of the Solar System

This book is a superposition of two distinct narratives: the first is historical, discussing the evolution of astronomical knowledge since the dawn of civilizations; the second is scientific, conveying mathematical and physical content of each advancement. Great scientists of antiquity, Middle Ages and modern times until the 18th century, are presented along with their discoveries, through short biographies and anecdotes. Special care is taken to explain their achievements using mathematical and physical concepts of their time, with modern perspective added only when ancient methodology is too cumbersome or its language hardly understandable to contemporary readers.The book conveys a lot of astronomical facts and data in a pleasant and accessible manner. Almost all findings and discoveries made in ancient times are followed by simple mathematical exercises using basic knowledge, so that the reader can check the assertions himself. The book contains a lot of inedited illustrations. Geometrical schemes are given extra attention to make the examples clear and understandable. The language is simple and accessible to the young audience.
Contents:

Acknowledgements
Preface
Prologue
How We See the World
The Visible Sky
The Eclipses
Ancient Astronomers and Mathematicians
Observers and Observatories
Measuring Time
Measuring Space
The Copernican Revolution
Tycho Brahe, the Prince of Astronomers
Galileo and the New Physics
Kepler and the New Astronomy
Newton and Universal Gravity
The Tides
Huygens and Cassini
Halley and the Transit of Venus
Cavendish and the Earth's Mass
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index