Astronomy Brochure

How Astronomy Impacted the Chinese and Polynesians

Polynesians 1.What did those people use astronomy for?   ● They used the stars to guide and help them navigate the  ocean.   ● The sun marked their day. Over 2000 years ago, records  began to be kept of the stars in order to help navigate,  especially in the night.   ● Using fixed points on the horizon, sailors memorized many  stars,  then  were able to figure their longitude and latitude.  Memorizing  the  positions,  brightness  and  colors  of  stars,  the sailors were able to navigate all throughout out the year.  2.How did it influence their lives and culture?   ● They  created  many  mythologies  around  the  stars.  One  group of stars was the main part to the founding story of the  polynesian culture.   ● Their navigational expertise helped them travel further and  more often than many of the other nations of their time.  

Polynesians3.What did they develop or invent as a result, or artwork, architecture, ect.?  ● They developed maps based through navigation by the  stars. The map was upside down because they based their  navigation mainly by the South.    ● This structure, the Sun Gate in Tonga, The Ha’amonga ‘o  Maui, is not only an ancient ruin. Originally it was used to  map the sun's movements and also helped determine  seasons. 

Chinese1.What did those people use astronomy for? ● They used the stars to keep track of time. Their year was 365.25 days in total and they also used this total number of days to say how many degrees were in a circle. Their circle consisted of 365.25 degrees compared to our 360 degrees today. ● In helping track time and the seasons the Chinese primarily used the Big Dipper constellation.

Chinese2.How did it influence their lives and culture? ● The stars and the sky played a huge part in the political side of China. The leader’s main responsibility was to keep the Earth in harmony with the sky. ● The formation of stars could,in their minds, predict the victory or defeat in battles. This is a picture of an atlas that helped determine/track several different comet formations.

Chinese3.What did they develop or invent as a result, orartwork, architecture, ect.? ● They developed a calendar of 12 months, 365.25 days, by tracking the stars. ● The first clock was invented by the Chinese and was splitting the day into 100 equal parts. ● Around the years of 1436-1449, they built an observatory in Beijing.

Both4.Compare both civilizations. ● Both created myths about the stars and star gods that influenced the religious aspect of their culture. ● In Polynesian myths Atutahi is a God, who is the patron of sailors. He is God of the heavens and the south star, Alpha Carinae. This is a picture of Alpha Carnea, the south star.

Both ● Chinese myth includes several deities in reference to the stars. Gods, such as the god of literature and the god of long life, that were connected to the stars.One Chinese myth is told like this: the weaver god,who weaves clouds, and the Herdsman, who herdscattle of heaven, fell in love. Other gods placed theMilky Way river between them so they would focus onwork instead of each other, but every 7th month on the7th day birds would form a bridge across the river sothe lovers could meet.

URLshttp://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/pre20th_ancients.htmlhttp://www.starteachastronomy.com/chinese.htmlhttp://polynesianastronomy.com/http://idp.bl.uk/4DCGI/education/astronomy/history.htmlhttp://myhome.spu.edu/ddowning/BigDipper_1991_w.jpghttp://www.sacred-texts.com/cfu/mlc/mlc07.htmhttp://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781462907786_p0_v3_s260x420.JPGhttp://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_chinaway/2005-08/19/content_72038.htm http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/names/polynesiangods.htmhttp://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Sp-Tl/Stars.htmlhttps://ferrebeekeeper.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/qixifestival.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Canopus.jpg Abigail Rowe 2/10/15 Astronomy 2nd Hour