ANCIENT ASTRONOMY
CRUDE OBSERVATIONS PROFESSOR SEGAR’S LECTURE The Egyptians recorded 1,205 eclipses in their exact proportion to solar and lunar activity, while the Chinese also obtained remarkable results.
This was stated by Professor H. W. Segar in an address on "Pre-Tele-scope Observations in Astronomy, last evening under the auspices of the Auckland Institute and Museum. Professor Segar said the study of astronomy went back to the earliest times, although the ancient observations were often of a crude nature. Studies were at first limited to the rising and setting of the stars, and their relative distance from one another. Various instruments used by the first astronomers were illustrated by the speaker. Primitive astronomy seemed most concerned with the stars which rose or set during harvest time or some festival season, continued the lecturer. It was possible the pyramids were the first astronomical instruments used by man between 2514 and 2436 8.0., for sufficiently accurate observations would need a fixed point or points for their completion.
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Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 612, 14 March 1929, Page 7
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164ANCIENT ASTRONOMY Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 612, 14 March 1929, Page 7
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