Ancient Greek astronomers and early Islamic scientists used astrolabes as mechanical computers to calculate time, determine height and navigate by the stars ...

The University of Sharjah hosted an astrolabe workshop in which western scientists showed participants how an astronomical instrument made by an ancient Muslim scholar nearly 1,000 years ago measured ...

While modern humans tend to think of science in terms of innovations made during the past 100 to 200 years, mankind has always had great scientific thinkers. Over 2,000 years ago, one or more such ...

Cambridge University historian Federica Gigante is an expert on Islamic astrolabes. So naturally she was intrigued when the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo in Verona, Italy, uploaded an image of ...

Its renown in the last of these fields was tied to the Lahore School, which blended Islamic and Sanskritic astronomical methods and produced peerless astrolabes—brass instruments with interlocking ...

Sometimes a little modern technology can help turn up an ancient treasure — even if that technology is nothing more than a computer screen and a simple web search. That's what happened to Federica ...

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco. Rama / Wikimedia Commons ...

Guinness World Records have independently certified an astrolabe excavated from the wreck site of a Portuguese Armada Ship that was part of Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India in 1502-1503 as the ...

There’s something enchanting about ancient tools and instruments. The idea that our forebears were able to fashion precision mechanisms with nothing but the simplest hand tools is fascinating. And ...

The Warwick Manufacturing Group, an academic department at the University of Warwick, is usually concerned with the future. Its researchers use high-resolution lasers and 3D visualizations to create ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A rare navigational tool has snagged a Guinness World Record as the oldest mariner's astrolabe.