The astronomical geography It is the subdiscipline of geography that is dedicated to the study of the earth in its relationship with the other celestial bodies. In this sense, a celestial body is any natural body outside the Earth's atmosphere. These include the Moon, the Sun, the other planets in the solar system, their satellites, and others..
During the 19th century, astronomical geography was distinguished from physical geography and political geography. Thus, astronomy was in charge of describing the earth in its character as a celestial globe: its place in space, its rotation on its axis and around the sun and its relationship with other luminous or dark objects in the universe..
Physics studied the configuration of the earth: soil, climate, and others. And politics described social products.
Since man stopped going to theology to explain the phenomena of the world and scientific knowledge began to give reliable answers, man has asked himself, what is there??
Geography was the first discipline to attempt to answer that question. Therefore, it is probably the oldest of all the sciences. Its basic components have always been the exploration and discovery of new places, new cultures and new ideas..
Thus, geography is known as the mother of all sciences, since it has been the germ of scientific fields, including astronomy..
Now, until the seventeenth century, when the telescope was invented and the laws of motion and gravity were discovered, astronomy was primarily concerned with recording and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets..
At first this was only done to create calendars and astrological purposes, then they were used for navigation and scientific interest..
Before the introduction of the telescope in 1609, all observations were made with the naked eye. This meant that there were many limitations and little detail in the observations..
After the invention of the telescope by Galileo Galilei, these were central to the development of astronomical geography.
As this instrument allows the study of objects that are at a great distance and that are very little perceptible to the human eye, it greatly facilitated answering the question, what is there? more there?
Telescopes, then, were a great input for the development of astronomical geography.
Among the first topics covered by mathematical geography, as it is also known, was the calculation of geographic coordinates, in other words, latitude and longitude..
These are used for the exact location of any point on the globe. The first measures how many degrees to the northern or southern hemisphere a certain point is relative to the imaginary line of the equator. The second measures the distance to the east or west of the Greenwich meridian.
Another of the aspects discussed is the magnitude of the celestial bodies and their calculation. This is the measure of the luminosity of a star or other celestial body.
A magnitude is defined as a brightness ratio of 2,512 times. So a 5.0 magnitude star is 2,512 times as bright as a 6.0 magnitude star..
Likewise, the calculation of the distances between the earth and the other stars, as well as their dimensions, is another aspect that concerns this sub-discipline of science..
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