A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (Dover Books on Astronomy)

Used the book for a "History of Astronomy" lecture that I am giving. I found many tidbits that will go a long way in making the lecture more interesting. The author's writing style makes it an interesting read, as the sentence structure is not quite modern. But still easy to read. Its not quite Shakespeare.

Great resource for a research project.

Thorough text on its subject matter. I have learned an immense amount when I already knew a fair amount.

I've had this book for many years. It's a good start if you want to get an idea on how the ancients viewed the heavens. The reader can use this as a starting point, then read other, more expanded books pertaining just to Thales, Plato and other astronomers. The one drawback are all the footnotes. The bottom of most pages are loaded with footnotes, so I can't give it 5 stars. They are extremely annoying, especially the ones that take up a third of the page. The author would have been better off listing them in a bibliography, in the back of the book.

Very interesting. Good addition to my library.

In 1905 JLE Dreyer, an astronomer and biographer of Tycho Brahe, published this wonderful overview of the development of western astronomy from the ancient Greeks to the time of Kepler (obviously). To this day (2008) it has not been surpassed by any English-language book. As the original title (History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler) implies, Dreyer devotes most of his attention to the arrangement and the motions of the planets (this includes the sun up to the 16th century, and the earth for the last part of the book). Although it is sometimes dated, I am continually amazed at the depth as well as breadth of coverage in this highly readable work. It is not too technical, so if you've been scared off from the subject by some of the more intensely mathematical works, don't be afraid to try this. It is a fundamental work on pre-telescopic astronomy: many later authors assume you already know the big picture that Dreyer provides. Other good books of this kind (also available in cheap Dover reprints) are Thomas Heath's "Aristarchus of Samos" (on ancient Greek astronomy, covers much more than the title implies) and Anton Pannekoek's "A History of Astronomy" (much better coverage than Dreyer of pre-Greek astronomy, and goes on past the invention of the telescope virtually up to the present).I cannot say enough good things about this book.

O livro está dentro das minhas expectativas. É um clássico da historia da astronomia antiga. Está escrito numa linguagem quase coloquial, sem uso de fórmulas matemáticas. É um livro agradável de ler e ao mesmo tempo bastante informativo.

It was for a gift to an amateur astronomer and was very well received.

La calidad de la impresión y empastado es buena a buen precio. Sobre el contenido, como el título señala, hace un estudio sobre los diversos modelos de universo qué han existido, poniendo énfasis en los personajes que hicieron esto posible y referencias qué sustentan lo escrito.

GREAT BOOK.WHEN YOOU READ IT ,IT TAKES YOU BACK TO HOW MAN FIRST BEGAN TO WONDER ABOUT THE REAL WORLD .AND BEYOND. THAKS CLIFF.

TRUELY EXCELLENT