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Young World
WORLD OF SCIENCE
Mapping the heavens
DR. T. V. PADMA
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In the east, heavenly maps were created as early as 2000 B.C.
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Photo: AP
Computer generated: Sky chart.
Heavenly maps were made by numerous non-Western cultures long before Europeans began to systematically catalogue the skies. Islamic astronomers made many meticulous maps of the skies, providing a framework for later observers. The tenth-century astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi recorded the first description of the nebulosity of the Andromeda nebula in his star atlas.
Brilliance
In ancient India, astronomical references date from 2000 B.C. Indian astronomers created brilliant innovations in mathematics, and translations of their texts played a pivotal role in the advancement of Arabic and European astronomy. Around 499 A.D., the Indian astronomer Aryabhata conceptualised the first heliocentric model of the solar system (about a thousand years before Copernicus).
As early as the second century B.C., a Chinese astronomer called Chang Heng invented quantitative cartography and applied a system of coordinates to the heavens as well as to earth. The oldest surviving projection sky chart, in which the curved sky was mapped on a flat piece of paper, comes from China, where the “Mercator” projection was used (centuries before Mercator independently invented it in Europe).
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