The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler

by Owen Gingerich

"Blurb & Contents" "I can think of few better ways of introducing students to the history of astronomy than by using The Eye of Heaven as a text....This is science at its best....Not only does Gingerich make you think, he also forces you back in time and makes you think as astronomers did then. Students need this inspiration." David Hughes, New Scientist Astronomer and historian Owen Gingerich provides a fascinating introduction to three giants of early Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler. In these collected essays, Gingerich examines the revolution in man's conception of the universe brought about by the shift from the earth-centered cosmos of Ptolemy to the sun-centered model of Copernicus.

Genres: Science, History

450 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 1993

About the author

Professor Owen Gingerich was a US astronomer. He served at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and as Professor of Astronomy and History of Science at Harvard University. He held memberships with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the International Academy of the History of Science. Gingerich published over 500 technical or educational articles and reviews, along with writing more popularly on astronomy and the history of astronomy in books, encyclopedias, and journals.

Gingerich taught at Harvard University until his retirement in 2000. He continues to be a widely recognized authority on the Renaisannce astronomers Johannes Kepler and Nicolaus Copernicus, and on the French astronomer Charles Messier.

Asteroid 2658: Gingerich, discovered on February 13, 1980, at the Harvard College Observatory, was named in his honor.

Reviews

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Plenty of highly valuable essays.

Gingerich is an easy read even for non-astronomers, and he draws you in a way that turns a typically mathematically heavy subject into something more like a murder mystery.

[Stephen Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection aimed at historians of science and astronomers. That means that the essays are far more dense than The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus, but also somewhat more rewarding. Most of what's said about Copernicus is similar, but Gingerich fleshes out the argument that Copernicus chose heliocentrism over geocentrism for aesthetic reasons rather than observational ones. The real treat of the collection is the chapters on Kepler, who Gingerich takes from being Tycho Brahe's sidekick to one of the most philosophically rigorous (and insane. Perhaps rigorously insane?) astronomers of the era.