This book discusses the study of astronomy in different cultures, applied historical astronomy and history of multi-wavelength astronomy, and the genesis of recent research. It contains peer-reviewed papers gathered from the International Conference on Oriental Astronomy 9 (ICOA-9) held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, India. It covers the areas like megalithic and other prehistoric astronomy, astronomical records in ancient texts, astronomical myths and architecture, astronomical themes in numismatics and rock art, ancient astronomers and their instruments, star maps and star catalogues, historical records and observations of astronomical events, calendars, calendrical science and chronology, the relation between astronomy and mathematics, and maritime astronomy. This book will be a valuable complement to a future generation of students and researchers who develop an interest in the field of Asian and circum-Pacific history of astronomy.

This edited volume contains 24 different research papers by members of the History and Heritage Working Group of the Southeast Asian Astronomy Network. The chapters were prepared by astronomers from Australia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Scotland, Sweden, Thailand and Vietnam. They represent the latest understanding of cultural and scientific interchange in the region over time, from ethnoastronomy to archaeoastronomy and more. Gathering together researchers from various locales, this volume enabled new connections to be made in service of building a more holistic vision of astronomical history in Southeast Asia, which boasts a proud and deep tradition.

Astronomy is a field concerned with matters very distant from Earth. Most phenomena, whether observed or theorized, transcend human spaces and timescales by orders of magnitude. Yet, many scientists have been interested not just in the events that have occurred millennia before Earth's inception, but also in their very own society here and now. Since the first half of the twentieth century, an increasing number of them have pursued parallel careers as both academics and activists. Besides publishing peer-reviewed papers, they have promoted a great variety of underrepresented groups within their discipline. Through conferences, newsletters and social media, they have sought to advance the interests of women, members of racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, and disabled people. While these activists have differed in the identities they focus on, they have come to share a conviction that diversity and inclusion are crucial for scientific excellence as well as social justice. In this book, you will read of the biographies and institutional contexts of key agents in the diversification of modern astronomy. As most are recent figures whose discoveries have not been commemorated by Nobel Prizes, they are relatively unknown among historians of science. They have, however, been central to discussions about who has privileged access to the tools of astronomical inquiry, including powerful telescopes and extensive databases. As such, they have also significantly shaped views of our universe.

Official title: Do the prehistoric interactions between astronomy and religion form a distinct religious tradition? In the dissertation for his Master's of Arts degree from the University of Central Lancashire, Cometan introduced and thoroughly explored his theory of the existence of the oldest religious tradition based on astronomical observation which he titles the Astronic tradition, or Astronicism. In this work, which received a Distinction Grade of 87 following its examination, Cometan discovers that astronomy and religion were indeed intertwined in prehistoric and ancient times. Through archaeological evidence, Cometan makes the case for the existence of an Astronic religious tradition stretching back to the Upper Palaeolithic period of the Stone Age some 40,000 years ago. Key ideas of Cometan's dissertation work include astromorphism, astrolatry, astroglyphs, astromancy, astronomical religion, and the theory of an astronomical Urreligion (an original or primordial religion).

Over two millennia ago, in troubled times not unlike our own, a mysterious figure, distinguished by a pheasant feather in his cap, emerged with poetic visions of a future world of peace and justice. Like Laozi, Pheasant Cap (Héguanzî) understood the underlying unity in things and the power of Dao to make things happen. Facing the threat of conquest by the westerly state of Qin, he looked to a messiah-like figure, the Ninth Augustan, to inaugurate a new era according to the mandate of the god Grand Unity. Here for the first time, we get an insider’s view of early Daoism as it influenced philosophy, its ideas of an interlinked cosmos, cyclical time, and the perceived role of the northern Dipper (Plough) constellation. A rediscovered early Daoist cosmic philosophy, and the messianic Nine Augustans (Jiu-Huang) with their stars in the Northern Dipper, are in this epic bilingual translation.

The contributions to this book address a series of ‘confrontations’—debates between intellectual communities, the interplay of texts and images, and the intersection of monumental architecture and physical terrain—and explore the ways in which the legacy of these encounters, and the human responses to them, conditioned cultural production in early South Asia (c. 4th-7th centuries CE). Rather than an agonistic term, the book uses ‘confrontation’ as a heuristic to examine historical moments within this pivotal period in which individuals and communities were confronted with new ideas and material expressions. The first half of the volume addresses the intersections of textual, material, and visual forms of cultural production by focusing on three primary modes of confrontation: the relation of inscribed texts to material media, the visual articulation of literary images and, finally, the literary interpretation and reception of built landscapes. The second part of the volume focuses on confrontations both within and between intellectual communities. The articles address the dynamics between peripheral and dominant movements in the history of Indian philosophy.

With just 400 pages, this title provides readers with the results of recent research from some of the world's leading historians of astronomy on aspects of Arabic, Australian, Chinese, Japanese, and North and South American astronomy and astrophysics. Of particular note are the sections on Arabic astronomy, Asian applied astronomy and the history of Australian radio astronomy, and the chapter on Peruvian astronomy. This title is of particular appeal to those with research interests in applied historical astronomy; archaeoastronomy; calendars, manuscripts, and star charts; historical instruments and observatories, and the history of radio astronomy.

This book examines the ways in which attitudes toward astronomy in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand and Uzbekistan have changed with the times. The emergence of astrophysics was a worldwide phenomenon during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it gradually replaced the older-style positional astronomy, which focused on locating and measuring the movements of the planets, stars, etc.. Here you will find national overviews that are at times followed by case studies of individual notable achievements. Although the emphasis is on the developments that occurred around 1900, later pioneering efforts in Australian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese radio astronomy are also included. As the first book ever published on the early development of astrophysics in Asia, the authors fill a chronological and technological void. Though others have already written about earlier astronomical developments in Asia, and about the recent history of astronomy in various Asian nations, no one has examined the emergence of astrophysics, the so-called ‘new astronomy’ in Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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