In a captivating blend of storytelling and scientific exposition, this book takes a first look at early astronomy for the uninitiated, from its nascent stages to the dawn of modern science. It presents a portrait of the early astronomers who observed the heavens with near obsessive thoroughness, charted the celestial sphere in new ways, and became the first scientists of the sky. The story opens a window to a less well-known, sometimes misunderstood part of our scientific heritage revealing the earliest roots of physical science. Beginning with the conceptual astronomy of the Greeks to the almost purely empirical science of Babylon, Ancient Stars takes us through Claudius Ptolemy’s conflict – and hopeful resolution – between the universe as observed and Greek ideas of how the universe ought to be, continuing with the seminal mathematical achievements on the road to Isaac Newton. All of the actors presented in the book learned to devise methods, hypotheses, and models based more completely on observation because those were the ones that worked. It was always slow going. It took centuries for the successors of Babylonian astronomy to throw off the warm blanket of Greek thought and see the sky as it really is. The projects we tell about in Ancient Stars encompass four watershed intellectual developments in the growth of early astronomy, snapshots of events occurring over a great arc of time, leapfrogging over swaths of history. Yet they are part of a remarkable, common, and intellectually continuous human enterprise, driven by curiosity – of one investigator, generations removed, calmly picking up where his predecessor left off. That it was a common and intellectually continuous project is an essential part of the story that has not been adequately told.

Early astronomy is often misrepresented in the popular literature by judgments that appear sadly dated. New research and investigative tools, however, have enhanced our understanding of the early works of astronomical science. This book presents a refreshingly contemporary perspective correcting outdated and incomplete accounts.

Douglas MacDougal is the author of a popular introductory textbook on celestial mechanics published by Springer, has a degree in mathematics, and long expertise in mathematically modeling celestial problems. He has written peer-reviewed and popular articles on the history of mathematical astronomy, astrophysics, and the culture of scientific inquiry. As an adjunct professor in the Department of Physics at Portland State University, Mr. MacDougal for years taught courses on astronomy and celestial mechanics, frequently applying mathematics to replicate historical problems. His 2012 textbook, Newton's Gravity: An Introductory Guide to the Mechanics of the Universe, published in Springer's Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics series, recast introductory celestial mechanics and its history for the undergraduate student using non-calculus mathematics, the only book of its kind.

Mr. MacDougal is well known as a regular contributor to Sky & Telescope magazine, published by the American Astronomical Society. Most recently, his cover story on Babylonian astronomy appeared in the January 2024 issue. He is also drawn to writing about less well-known, overshadowed, or misunderstood figures and women scientists. An article in that vein (about astronomer Vesto Slipher) was the cover story in the December 2024 issue of Astronomy magazine, written with Marcia Bartusiak (MIT) and Joel Marcus (Lowell Observatory). His profile of the Harvard astronomer Cecilia Payne appeared in the May 2025 issue of Sky & Telescope, and his article on Newton and Halley was published in the September 2025 issue. His blog at www.douglasmacdougal.com, Discovering the Universe ~ Stories and Histories of Earth, Sky and Motion, is a collection of brief essays with mathematical commentary on astronomical phenomena and the history of astronomy.