Very interesting. I enjoy both astronomy and history, do you know any books/materials you would recommend to someone who is just an enthusiast? Also, would you share the title of your podcast?
I've found a couple of books that have been very good:
A History of Astronomy by A. Pannekoek has a reasonably detailed and readable history of ancient astronomy, though as I've been diving into it I've found that parts are a little dated. But it's really good to get a high level overview of what the main problems early astronomers were trying to solve and how they were trying to solve them.
Episodes in the Early History of Astronomy by Aaboe is really good, too, though it's more from the perspective of a modern astronomer trying to put the ancient methods into modern mathematical notation. It's very valuable if you're not intimidated by equations.
Exploring Ancient Skies by Kelly et al. is by far the most detailed and contains the most up-to-date scholarship on ancient astronomy, but it's pretty hard to read casually. In some parts it's kind of like a review article that's just a bunch of pointers to other references.
A History of Astronomy by A. Pannekoek has a reasonably detailed and readable history of ancient astronomy, though as I've been diving into it I've found that parts are a little dated. But it's really good to get a high level overview of what the main problems early astronomers were trying to solve and how they were trying to solve them.
Episodes in the Early History of Astronomy by Aaboe is really good, too, though it's more from the perspective of a modern astronomer trying to put the ancient methods into modern mathematical notation. It's very valuable if you're not intimidated by equations.
Exploring Ancient Skies by Kelly et al. is by far the most detailed and contains the most up-to-date scholarship on ancient astronomy, but it's pretty hard to read casually. In some parts it's kind of like a review article that's just a bunch of pointers to other references.
My podcast is Song of Urania and you can find it here: https://songofurania.com/
The full moon was today, so naturally I'm procrastinating here on HN rather than editing my latest episode. :)