Ancient astronomy I:Jantar Mantar

We have got so many machines today for efficient space observations.So many high magnification telescopes are available for us today.But have you ever thought what people did before these things were invented?

The mathematicians,astronomers and architects of ancient times have achieved great feats without the use of modern machinery.It amazes me when i read about these ancient buildings used for astronomical purposes.I have decided to protrude further and research more on such things for a few days.

Today,I have started with the Jantar Mantar at Jaipur,India.Even though India has 5 Jantar Mantar,I chose Jaipur as it is the most accurate out of the five.Some Yantras or instruments present in it are:-

Samrat Yantra-It is used to calculate the local time,Meredian Pass time,Zenith distance,Declination and Altitude of the heavenly bodies by studying the shadow of its gnomon.This is the most used instrument of the observatory today.

The Sasthamsa Yantra-It is a sextant used for finding the zeaneth,distance and declination

The Dhruva-Darshak Yantra-Also known as pole star instrument,it is used to find the geographical north,position of pole star,ursamajor and others

The Narivalaya yantra-It measures the local solar time.It can be used to find the positions of the sun

The Jai Prakash Yantra-It is used for celestial observations during the night

I have only covered a handful of instruments,but there are many more like the Rashi Yantra,Yantra Raj,Kapali Yantras and Chakra Yantras

basic astronomy

Hello guys n welcome to the astrozone where we all share everythin we know about astronomy.Lets get down to the basics and define astronomy.Well,astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies) .In simple words astronomy is the study of everything over the earth's atmosphere.anyone having a simpler definition can post it.