A NOTE ON ISLAMIC ASTRONOMY

Abstract

The splendid vista of exploration of the dark chasms of space recently opened up by the coming into full use of the 200-inch Hale telescope at Palomar, California (the instrument is really a giant camera) and the new technique of radio astronomy which has revealed the presence of “radio stars” (at present so called for want of a better name)—dark bodies whose precise nature is not yet determined—might lead some people to think that the work of the ancient astronomers and their immediate successors counted now for little. But to do so would be grossly unjust not only to the achievements of ancient Greek astronomy but also to the valuable legacy left to the Middle Ages by Islamic astronomy.