Astrolabe Explanation by Eddie Goldstein

Astrolabes were used by early astronomers, merchants, and travelers to tell the time using the stars. Here is a clear explanation of just how they work.

[@andrew_owens7680]

Thank you so much. I give my children Arabic lessons once a week and we end with something from Arabic culture. This week's lesson was about the astrolabe and we watched the explanation from the British Museum. Yours is more in depth and superior.

[@EyeLean5280]

Thanks so much, this is the clearest explanation I've found so far, even compared to the one from BBC. Bravo!

[@johnryan2193]

Thanks Eddie,a very good account of the astrolabe .

[@I-20rider]

Good video, the black piece that represents the horizon that he turns is called a rule

[@user-em8hr5tq5d]

Until now is the best explain about astrolabe.exellent work sir becose i can understand how this tool work.hello from greece.

[@alasehamabenabijarnejashi3406]

Amazing clear explanation

[@garonal]

Excellent video.

[@swatisquantum]

Thank you for explaining the Astrolabe. I was taught by my teacher that the Astrolobe is ancient technology, possibly millions of years old and has always been here on earth. It is an off-grid mechanical device that directly corresponds to the movements of the illuminaries above in the skydome -- and a proper Astrolobe positioned to your GPS coordinates, is a tool to be in correspondence in perfect mathematical synchronization to the stars/heavens above. A tool of "As above, so below". The stars are you looking back at you and ornaments in the sky for your enjoyment, companions at night, and co-pilots during navigation at night as you enjoy your visit to earth in your avatar body. :)

[@ericbrunstad]

This actually made sense. Thank you.

[@nasserali9902]

very clear explanation! Thanks for sharing :)

[@rigemortis]

Thank you for a nice explaination

[@maryamhosseinipak4057]

Thanks thanks and thanks again 🙏🙏🙏🌹🌹🌹

[@floridamanpresents3952]

glorious

[@argonwheatbelly637]

The rete is the part with the stars. The alidade is the sighting tool on the back, and the rule (with declinations) is the one on the front (frequently only a radius, not a diameter-spanning label).

[@eddiegoldstein288]

Thank you for the info. I actually had that written down, but didn't remember it in the moment as the video was being shot.

[@eddiegoldstein288]

Thanks.

[@frankmansour362]

In the old days, they used the Julian calendar, which was inaccurate. 1st of November for example this year will drift over time, so results will change dramatically over time, to the point where we had a substantial difference when switching to the Gregorian calendar...did the drift in observation lead to the creation and adoption of the Gregorian calendar?

[@shiao3990]

Great Video!!! Rreally helpful! Although, you should have put Rigel and Betelgeuse in the description, because all I heard was baitul juice... (I wasn't familiar with English names for the stars) .

[@eddiegoldstein62]

Thank you, Shiao, for your nice comments. Where are you writing from? Eddie

[@daisytoromanzano8865]

@@eddiegoldstein62 Thanks so much for the explanation. I didn’t know about the astrolabe. For that system to be able to work does the earth need to be stationary? Thanks

[@daisytoromanzano8865]

@@eddiegoldstein62 Hi eddie. Thanks for replying to my question about is the earth is stationary. I can’t find your answer here. Did they blocked it? It seems that before newton, Copernicus, etc. the models they have were that the sun, moon and stars were the one moving instead after that era then we moved to a heliocentric model.

[@QuickRead_Hub115]

Sir we made astrolobe for our project but one thing we didn't understand that is the relation between zodiac constellation and outer most degree scale for example why Libra is on 0 degree please answer if you know...

[@annazfker2028]

HELLO, WERE CAN I GET ONE OF THOSE BIG ASTROLABES ?

[@DanielFavio]

Where could I buy an astrolabe? I have been looking to buy a working one with Roman letter script so I could try to actually read and use it.

[@eddiegoldstein62]

No idea. But, if you find a good source, please post it here. Thanks, Eddie

[@beautye5909]

Like a lot of astrolabes, mine has multiple plates for the background sky. How do I know which one I am suppose to use from my position on the planet?

[@eddiegoldstein288]

Hi Tyrel, Although I'm not an expert on astrolabes, I think that the multiple plates refer to different latitudes. So, look up the latitude of your location, then choose the plate that comes closest to that latitude.

[@beautye5909]

@@eddiegoldstein288 Thank you, It looks i might need to do some more translating :P but I'm slowly figuring things out.

[@maxfine3299]

Where did you get your astrolabe from?

[@beautye5909]

@@maxfine3299 I got it from an antique store, and they said they got it from a downtown daytons, i'm not sure where it was before then. Minneapolis is the city

[@maxfine3299]

Where did you get such a large astrolabe from?

[@eddiegoldstein288]

It was made at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where I work.

[@williamkuhns2387]

Did Bedouins traveling in the vast deserts use the astrolabe to navigate in a similar way to sailors out in open ocean?

[@swatisquantum]

yes they used the positions of the luminaries and fixed position of polaris.

[@heltoneschenazi3787]

Why is the horizon in the computer screen concave upward? When I look to the horizon it seems straight. I KNOW EARTH IS NOT FLAT! But if I go very high up (60,000 ft or up), I can see the curvature of the earth, and it seems concave downward (not upward).

[@eddiegoldstein288]

That is just a function of the computer software. The astrolabe is a "projection" of the night sky, which is different from the shape of the actual night sky. In the same way that a map of the Earth is a projection of the seas and continents, but not the same as a globe of the earth. I set my computer "distortion" to match the "distortion" on the Astrolabe. Neither one shows the actual shape of the sky, but is simply a calculator for the sky.

[@stevealdrich2472]

Who made the first astrolabe? Where and when?

[@frankmansour362]

Greeks, then Persians and Arabs, then Europeans

[@happycats5223]

Arabs. Islamic golden ages

[@happycats5223]

kzbin.info0x0e9SqoKgk?feature=share

[@heavyglassglass]

​@@happycats5223 wrong. It was invented in Greece 800 years before Islam started

[@LATIFAHMOHDNOR-zy1mq]

Page 78 Heloise and Abelard fell in love, and she gave birth to a son whom they named Astrolabe.

[@LATIFAHMOHDNOR-zy1mq]

Her uncle Fulbert, at first enraged by the relationship between Heloise and Abelard and later somewhat placated by their marriage, finally decided that Abelard had abandoned Heloise at the abbey and had him emasculated.

[@alibagcgil7111]

Hey Eddie ! EARTH IS FLAT ! my frend !

[@laughy38247357075834]

Boo get out of here

[@alibagcgil7111]

@@laughy38247357075834 YOU GO OUT OF HERE ! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR DOCTRINE BRAIN ! BECAUSE NEITHER YOUR EDUCATION NOR YOUR HUMAN QUALITY IS ENOUGH FOR THIS ! YOU DIRTY RACIST ! ! !

[@alibagcgil7111]

@Ahman Ahm 😂😂😂

[@user-em8hr5tq5d]

First of all you must know the date to put the sun and then to find what time is it.becose the sun change position in the year.so if you dont know the date this tool is useless.ofcourse if you count the time sunrise and sunset you can find what day it is but you need a clock or an other count system .if the astrolabe can do this job then it works.becose i do now a senario.a medieval ship go inside the water.a sailor is saved and he is now to a island with a astrolabe.he dont remember what day it is.how he can find the day to line the astrolabe and find time position and to put the sun ofcourse to the right position.i tell again if the astrolabe do this work thats ok.or else this tool is not 100% finised.need more work.of someone know this tool becose i know how this astrolabe works thanks to many videos,just tell me how to find date.thanks and sorry becose i dont speak very good english.

[@eddiegoldstein288]

Hi. I'm not an expert on this, but will give it a good guess. For the most part, the user DID know the approximate date and so could set the position of the Sun. This is not hard to imagine since they would certainly know if it were winter or summer, and most likely what astrological sign the Sun was in. That is probably close enough. There are other ways that the user could figure out the approximate position of the Sun. One would be to see (using a compass) where the Sun rose or set. That would match up to where the sun-mark would cross the horizon line on the astrolabe. One could also look at which constellation set immediately after the Sun set to see where in the zodiac the Sun was. Again, these are just ideas of how a lost traveler might use an astrolabe, and some ingenuity, to figure things out.

[@user-em8hr5tq5d]

Mr@@eddiegoldstein288 thanks a lot for your time and for your high level video.hello from athens greece.

[@cringekids613]

Proving the flat earth thank you. Star would all be moving separately especially after thousands of years. Those stars would have moved.

[@eMBO_Gaming]

And they do. Its called proper motion.