Astronomy was born much earlier in human history than other natural sciences. In the distant past, when the practical knowledge of daily life and work had not yet created a systematic study of physics and chemistry, astronomy was already a highly developed science. This antiquity itself determines the special place of astronomical science in the history of human culture. Other fields of knowledge developed into sciences in the subsequent centuries, and this development occurred mainly within the walls of universities and laboratories, where the noise of political and social conflict rarely entered. Conversely, astronomy had already manifested itself as a system of theoretical knowledge in the ancient world, enabling humans even to predict terrifying eclipses, and became a crucial factor in the spiritual struggle of humanity.

This history is linked to the process of human development beginning from the rise of civilization, and is largely related to a time when society and the individual, labor and ritual, science and religion were all undivided. In the ancient world and for many subsequent centuries, various doctrines of astronomy were essential components of the worldview, which were simultaneously reflections of religious, philosophical, and social life. When modern physicists look at their earliest predecessors, they see people who held concepts of experiment and decision, cause and effect, similar to their own (though more primitive). Conversely, when astronomers look at their predecessors, they see Babylonian priests and magicians, Greek philosophers, Muslim princes, medieval monks, Renaissance aristocrats, and clergymen—until among the scholars of the seventeenth century they first encounter a modern citizen like themselves. To all these people, astronomy was not a limited branch of a specialized science, but rather a world-system inextricably linked with their entire conception of life. Not the traditional tasks of a professional group, but rather the deepest problems of humanity inspired their work.

The history of astronomy is the history of the development of the human worldview. Humans always instinctively felt that the source and essence of their lives lay in the sky above in a deeper sense than on the earth below. Light and warmth came from the sky. It was there that the sun and other celestial bodies traced their orbits; it was there that the gods lived who ruled human destiny, writing their messages among the stars. The sky was very close, and the stars played their roles in human life. The study of the planets and stars was the revelation of this higher world, the noblest of all things found in human thought and spiritual endeavor.

This study spanning many centuries, even in ancient times taught two things: the periodic recurrence of celestial events and the vastness of the universe. Within the all-encompassing celestial sphere filled with stars, the earth, despite being the center and primary object to humans, was actually a small dark sphere. Other objects in space—the sun, moon, and planets, some larger than the earth—orbited this earth. This worldview was preserved as an inheritance after the fall of the ancient world, after science had merged into a thousand-year-long period of exhaustion, and was transmitted to the emerging Western European culture at the end of the Middle Ages.

In the sixteenth century, driven by strong social developments, astronomy gave birth to a new cosmology. It revealed that what was considered the most certain knowledge about the foundation of our lives—the immobility of the earth—was actually merely an illusion. It further showed that our earth is only one of several similar planets revolving around the sun. Beyond this was endless space where there are many other stars like the sun. This was a revolution that opened new doors of thought. Through rigorous effort and much struggle, people had to re-orient themselves within their own world. During those centuries of revolution, debates over astronomical truth were a vital element of the spiritual struggle linked to the massive social upheavals of the time.

Like other branches of the study of nature, astronomy then entered a new era. The following century brought the discovery of the fundamental laws governing all motion in the universe. For the first time, philosophical thought faced a specific and rigorous law of nature. The old mystical astrological relationship between cosmic objects and humans was replaced by the universal mechanical action of gravitation.

Then, finally, in the modern age of science, the conception of the universe expanded to a much larger scale than before, which can only be expressed through numbers and in comparison to which talking about the smallness of the earth is a mere waste of words. Once again or still, astronomy is the science of the universe in its totality, though now only in a spatial sense. In ancient times, the idea of the unity of the celestial and human worlds inspired the hearts of students of nature, and now people are stirred by the proud consciousness of the power of their minds, which are capable of reaching from our tiny dwelling to the most distant galaxies.

In ancient times, when physical theory was merely abstract speculation, astronomy served as a disciplined system of knowledge capable of providing practical guidance in space and time. In subsequent centuries, to satisfy the thirst for truth—that is, intellectual beauty—astronomical research gradually led toward theoretical knowledge regarding the structure of the universe without regard for practical application. Then the mutual relationship of the sciences became the complete opposite of the previous state. Physics, chemistry, and biology began to expand rapidly. Through technological applications, they brought revolutionary changes to society and transformed the face of the earth. In the tide of this revolution, astronomy stood to one side. The stars can contribute nothing directly to our technology, our material life, or our economic organization. Therefore, the study of this subject gradually became an idealistic quest for material knowledge of the universe. While other sciences were achieving brilliant success in transforming the human world, the practice of astronomy has become a work of culture, an adventure of the mind. Consequently, its history has remained what it always was—an essential part of the history of human culture.