Would anyone like to provide religious information related to Islamic astronomy?

Answer 1

See wikipedia link for information below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_astronomy

...In the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made by the Islamic civilisation between the 8th and 15th centuries…. These include Indian and Sassanid works in particular…. Some Hellenistic texts were also translated and built upon as well....

....Some stars in the sky, such as Aldebaran, are still today recognized with their Arabic names....

....Pre-Islamic Arabs had no scientific astronomy....Their knowledge of stars was only empirical, limited to what they observed regarding the rising and setting of stars… The rise of Islam provoked increased Arab thought in this field....

....Several forms of quadrants were invented by Muslims. ..Among them was the sine quadrant used for astronomical calculations and various forms of the horary quadrant, used to determine time (especially the times of prayer) by observations of the Sun or stars...

.…Sundials were frequently placed on mosques to determine the time of prayer. One of the most striking examples was built in the 14th century by the muwaqqit (timekeeper) of the Umayyid Mosque in Damascus, Ibn al-Shatir....

Answer 2

I investigated this a bit when attempting to brew a computer program to compute prayer times, since in Saudi Arabia the thugs close the shops at those times. The dawn prayer, called for in the Qur'an when there is enough light to distinguish a black thread from a white one, is conventionally held at the beginning of astronomical twilight, when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. The next prayer is at local solar noon, and the one folliwing is in mid-afternoon, when the length of the shadow of a stick has increased over its length at noon by the length of the stick. There is another prayer at sunset, and yet another an hour and a half later (two hours during Ramadhan). The calendar is strictly lunar, with a new month beginning at the first appearance of a new moon. This becomes less than convenient if the weather goes bad, and computations are done with respect to estimated times of such sitings so that calendars can be prepared in advance. The criteria are heavily dependent on the exact positions of things, and have changed somewhat over the years.

Answer 3

lol astronomy is a Science. It holds no matter what religion you believe in. I doubt there is any thing as "Islamic Astronomy."

Answer 4

You mean like when Muhammad "ripped the moon in half"?

That's utter baloney.

Answer 5

Yes, someone would like to do so.