Mauritania is the name formerly given to a country in the northern part of Africa. Chaldea is the ancient name for Babylonia, now called Irak Arabi, a district of Asiatic Turkey.
By whom were the heavenly bodies first divided into Constellations or groups?
By the ancients. The phenomena of the heavens were studied in very early ages by several nations of the East. The Chaldeans, the Indians, the Chinese and the Egyptians have all left evidence of the industry and ingenuity with which their observations were conducted.
Phenomena, appearances.
Ingenuity, skilfulness.
What progress did they make in Astronomy?
They built observatories,—invented instruments for observing and measuring with correctness,—separated the stars into different groups or constellations, for the more easily finding any particular star,—gave particular names to most of the moving stars or planets, and noted the periods which each took to move through its apparent path in the heavens; and in many other ways the ancients helped to lay the foundations of that mass of astronomical knowledge which men of later ages have brought to more maturity.
Constellation, a cluster of fixed stars; an assemblage of stars.
Observatory, a place so built as to command a view of the heavens.
Who first taught the true system of the Universe?