Astronomy has been part of human culture since the beginning of time. Ancient astronomers depended on the stars for their survival. The word "astronomy" comes from a combination of two Greek words: astron meaning "star" and nemein meaning "to name". Before there was even writing, man had named the celestial bodies. Farmers derived the times for harvesting and planting from the phases of the Moon and the passage of the sun. Sailors used the stars to steer their ships while desert wanderers navigated the land by using the stars.

Even the ancient Egyptians used the stars, marking the beginning of their crop year when Sirius appeared in the dawn sky before the rising of the sun. This event coincided with the flooding of the Nile. Thousands of years ago the Mayan Indians, the Babylonians, the Chinese, the Asyrians and the Egyptians had developed calendars and had recorded sunspots, comets, meteors and meteorites, while during the Bronze Age, Stonehenge, an astronomical monument which not only marked the directions of the rising and setting of the sun but depicted the beginning of summer and winter, was erected in Southwest England.

Although Ancient Astronomers' technologies appeared to be limited, these Astronomers made significant contributions that would help future astronomers and space explorers extrapolate the most wonderous ideas and hypotheses.