Round 5: Tossup 17

Note to moderator: Read answerline carefully. Scholars led by Gautama Siddha chronicled members of this profession during the Kaiyuan Era like Shi Shen and Gan De. Alfonso X of Castile’s patronage of “tables” used in this profession earned him the epithet “the wise.” (-5[1])The multi-gear Antikythera (“an-TEE-kuh-THEE-ruh”) mechanism was probably used by members of this profession. The (15[1]-5[1])Almagest ("ALL-muh-jest") was (15[1])expanded upon in catalogues called Zij (“zeej”) by members of this profession based at an institution founded by Ulugh Beg in (*) Samarkand. Armillary Spheres (-5[1])were used by a member of this profession who uttered “and yet it moves” during a trial (10[1])on his support for heliocentrism. For 10 points, members of what profession worked in observatories? (10[1])■END■ (10[2])

ANSWER: astronomy [or astronomers; accept stargazing or observing stars; accept astrologist or astrology; accept reading the stars; prompt on mathematicians or mathematics or geometry or arithmetic by asking “what specific profession did they use math in?”; prompt on descriptions of time keeping or timekeepers with "what specific profession did they study in order to keep time?”; prompt on diviners or divination or omen tellers or omen telling or augurs or augury; prompt on navigation or navigators; prompt on science or scientist]
<History - Other, Vikram Narasimhan> | VAULT II Packet 05
= Average correct buzzpoint

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