Clustering commodity displays into a Tiled Display Wall (TDW) provides a cost-effective way to create an extremely high resolution display, capable of approaching the image sizes now generated by modern astronomical instruments. Many research institutions have constructed TDWs on the basis that they will improve the scientific outcomes of astronomical imagery. We test this concept by presenting...

In fact, this assumption is incorrect and, whilst the Ancient Greek astronomers made huge contributions to astronomy, their knowledge was built upon the solid foundations laid by other great cultures. The Mesopotamian [1] and Zoroastrian astronomers and astrologers, in the Fertile Crescent and the empty deserts of Persia, made many sophisticated observations and devised complex theories to desc...

F decades medieval historians have placed population at the centre of their concerns, but it is only in recent years that their studies have begun to constitute a respectable branch of historical demography. From the scrutiny of oblique records which provide indications of such matters as settlement, the size of landholdings, land values, prices and wages, attention has increasingly turned towa...

A review of the study of dark matter and large scale structure of the Universe at Tartu Observatory is given. Tartu astronomers have participated in this development, starting from Ernst Öpik and Grigori Kuzmin, and continuing with the present generation of astronomers. Our goal was to understand better the structure, origin and evolution of the Universe.

Did you know that Vedic priests were using the socalled Pythagorean theorem to construct their fire altars in 800 BCE?; that the differential equation for the sine function, in finite difference form, was described by Indian mathematician-astronomers in the fifth century CE?; and that “Gregory’s” series π/4 = 1− 1 3 + 1 5 −· · · was proven using the power series for arctangent and, with ingenio...