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[[File:Chichen Itza Observatory 2 1.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Figure 1. Ancient observatory from Chichen Itza.]]
We often think of astronomy as a type of academic discipline or hobby subject taken up by those interested in the night sky. While this is true, astronomy has fundamentally shaped human history as it allowed the understanding of the seasons and seaborne navigation. Additionally, in order to make wider understanding of the movement of starts and celestial objects in general, a great understanding of mathematics was needed that allowed other developments, where even ideas of mapping and coordinate systems developed. The importance of astronomy to the past is attested by the fact that some ancient languages only went extinct after astronomical observations ceased. On the other hand, for the modern world, astronomy has the potential to also shape our future in guiding future space exploration and possibly new worlds to explore.
===Ancient Astronomy===Basic observation of the night sky across most of the latitudes that people heavily occupy indicates that stars, the sun, and the night sky undergo changes during the year. This is an important pattern that many ancient societies understood, where cultures in the New and Old Worlds developed astronomical observations. This includes the ancient Maya, Aztecs, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, and others (Figure 1). Astronomy helped to distinguish seasonal changes that are important for agriculturally-based societies. Knowing when the autumn and planting season in northern latitudes, for example, indicate when it is safe to harvest and sow crops.<ref>For more examples of ancient societies with knowledge of various astronomical principles, see: Ruggles, C. L. N. (2005). <i>Ancient astronomy: an encyclopedia of cosmologies and myth.</i> Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.</ref>
Astronomy helped to form both lunar and solar based calendars, where ancient societies even understood that the solar year was slightly more than 365 days. Navigation of ship-borne trade before 1000 BCE was mostly confined to areas along the coast or regions that can more easily observe land. However, there are many secondary benefits astronomy made it possible to navigate in open waters and during the night. Whereas early navigation depended on land features, understanding the position of this type stars allowed the Phoenicians and Greeks to colonize wide areas of observationthe Mediterranean Sea in the 1st millennium BCE, spreading their cultures in wide areas. FirstBabylon and wider Babylonia was one of the key regions for many ancient developments. This included the development of the zodiac signs, still utilized today, knowing where and even a coordinate system to identify the starts positioning of stars and sun will be makes it evident there constellations. A system for predicting eclipses was even developed, invented in Babylon, which is a recurrent patternstill utilized, called the Solaris system. This pattern often has observable mathematical property that helps ancient societies The coordinate system developed was the eventual 60-based system we use to develop ways to predict when astronomical events will occurdescribe global navigation today. We <ref>For more on calendars and observations of eclipses, see this : Lawson, R. M. (2004). <i>Science in the ancient Babyloniaworld: an encyclopedia.</i> Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, where astronomical observations developed mathematical formulations to understand where plants and stars would align as well as when comets may reappearpg. 32.</ref>
===Modern Astronomy===Modern astronomy developed in the 19th century, where experiments and further observations led to the understanding of basic chemistry, such as understanding how hydrogen and helium formed the basic components of the universe. Major recent advances have focused understanding the expansion of the universe. This changed by includes the understanding of the origin of the 16th-17th centuriesuniverse and big bang theory became a major discovery. Advancements These developments also led for the need for increased developments in opticsa variety of other technologies, made including in the Islamic world by the early Medieval perioddeveloping exploratory satellites, telescopes, and then created into a telescope eventually computers to Galileo Galilei to fashion process data from a telescope that could observe celestial bodiesvariety of developed sensors.<ref>For more on 19th century and later development in astronomy, see: Krebs, R. E. (2004). <i>Groundbreaking scientific experiments, inventions, and discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.</i> Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.</ref>
==Modern Major Societal Influence of Astronomyand Summary==In the early developments of astronomy, observation of stars and planets led to the understanding of the change in seasons had clear patterns that could be predicted. This not only helped develop agriculture, but other impacts include integrating astronomical observations with religious calendars. Astronomical knowledge had major influence on sea navigation, which led to increased long-distance sea trade routes and colonies. Calendars also became relatively accurate, helping to define both solar and lunar based years for different societies. Mathematics became developed to assist with predicting observations of planets and comets. This was initially done to assist in the worship of gods, but soon other benefits were found as mathematical principals were applied to other areas, including in measurements. Map-making was also something that may have been partially influenced by astronomy, as a coordinate system was already developed for understanding the location and positioning of the stars and constellations. The 60-degree based system used to describe the sky is also now used today to describe map coordinates and location.
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