Ancient Skies

2019 Ended PBS ★ 7.0/10

Mystery History

Discover how centuries of knowledge, experimentation, and engineering helped our ancestors understand the mysteries of space. Expert contributors decode astronomical myths and uncover the science behind their origins. With breathtaking CGI, beautiful landscape footage and some of the world's most important astronomical artifacts, Ancient Skies looks at the cosmos through the eyes of our ancestors, charting our changing views of the cosmos throughout history. We take a journey through past visions of the heavens from all over the world, and from the dawn of civilization to the recent past. From hunter-gatherers to Edwin Hubble, we'll see the myriad of ways that we have observed and chronicled the movements of the heavens. And with a cast of expert historians and astronomers, we explain the science behind the phenomena that our ancestors sought to explain through mythology. Throughout the series, we use cutting-edge animation to demonstrate our ever-evolving understanding of how the universe works and our place in an ever-expanding cosmos.