Lecture 7 – History of Astronomy, Part 2/2
Summary / Checklist of the Main Concepts to Understand and Remember

Renaissance Astronomy and the Copernican Revolution  
red bullet Why is Copernicus important in the history of astronomy?  
• What were the main points in Copernicus' model of the Solar System?  
• Why did Copernicus still use circles and epicycles in his model?  
red bullet How did Copernicus explain the retrograde motion of planets?  
red bullet What was Tycho Brahe's main contribution to the history of astronomy and our understanding of planet motion?  
• What did Tycho discover about a comet and a supernova that made him famous, and how did he do it?  
red bullet Why is Galileo important in the history of astronomy?  
• What did Galileo see about the Milky Way, the Moon and Sun, Venus, and Jupiter? Why were those observations important?  
• Around what year were telescopes invented?  
Kepler and the Laws of Planetary Motion  
red bullet Why is Kepler important in the history of astronomy?  
• What did Kepler establish about the motion of planets in the solar system?  
red bullet According to Kepler's laws, what is the shape of a planet's orbit, and where along its orbit does it move faster/slower?  
red bullet According to Kepler's laws, how does the speed of an inner planet along its orbit compare to that of an outer planet?  
• Around what time (century) did Copernicus, Tycho, Galileo and Kepler live?  
     

Topics from the lecture page and textbook not listed above [or between square brackets] were not covered in class;
Underlined words indicate that I will expect students to remember a number or a name related to that topic.

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