The History of Ptolemy’s Star Catalogue

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Springer Science & Business Media, 1990 - 347 pàgines
Ptolemy's Almagest shares with Euclid's Elements the glory of being the scientific text longest in use. From its conception in the second century up to the late Renaissance, this work determined astronomy as a science. During this time the Almagest was not only a work on astronomy; the subject was defined as what is described in the Almagest. The cautious emancipation of the late middle ages and the revolutionary creation of the new science in the 16th century are not conceivable without reference to the Almagest. This text lifted European astronomy to the high standard of knowledge on which the new science flourished. Before, the Ptolemaic models of the orbits of the sun, the moon, and the planets had been refined by Arabic astronomers. They provided the structural elements with which Copernicus and Kepler ushered in the era of modern astronomy. The Almagest survived the destruction of its epicyclic representation of the planetary orbits in the conceptual traces left behind in the theories of its successors. The clear separation of the sidereal from the tropical year, the celestial coordinate systems, the concepts of time, the forms of the constellations, and brightness classifications of celestial objects are, among many other things, still part of the astronomical canon even today.
 

Continguts

The Stars of the Almagest
16
112 Methodological Background
16
113 The Almagest on Fixed Stars
16
12 The Arabic Revision of the Almagest
16
Accusations
21
22 Laplace and Lalande
23
23 Delambres Investigations
25
The Rehabilitation of Ptolemy
32
425 Statistical Test for Independent Data A Simulation
108
426 Dating
115
43 Gunders Stars
120
Structures in Ptolemys Star Catalogue
127
52 Multiple Sources
133
521 Dreyers Paradigm
134
53 Method of Selective Error Distribution
138
531 ClusterAnalysis
140

32 Supplementary Catalogues
41
322 Dreyers 14 Degree Stars
42
323 Dreyer II
45
324 Fotheringham
47
33 The Reconstruction of the Hipparchan Catalogue
50
331 The Determination of the Precession
57
332 Dreyers 14 degree stars
59
333 Peters Hypotheses of two Observation Instruments
61
335 The Epoch of Observation for the Hipparchan Coordinates
62
34 Gundels List of Hipparchan Stars
65
35 Precession and Solar Theory
71
352 The Hipparchan Solar Theory
74
36 Accusations
77
361 The Observation of Regulus and Spica
78
362 The Measurements of Declination
79
363 Stellar Positions from Occultations by the Moon
81
364 Fraction of the Degrees
82
The Analysis of the Star Catalogue
90
411 Critical Edition of the Catalogue
92
412 Recalculation of the Coordinates for the time of Hipparchus
93
414 Errors in the Almagest
95
42 Criticism of Vogt
97
422 Reconstruction of Coordinates
102
423 The Accuracy of the Reconstructed Coordinates
104
424 Vogts Proof of Independent Observations
105
54 Errors of the Solar Theory
146
55 Fractions of Degree
154
551 Fractions of Degrees in Latitude
156
552 Fractions of Degree in Longitude
162
56 Hipparchus Commentary on Aratus
172
562 Numerical Values
173
57 Calculation of Phenomena
175
I 572 Simultaneous Rising and Setting
176
582 From Observation to Phenomena
180
583 New Ways of Comparison
182
584 The Globe
188
585 More Details
189
59 Reconstruction
190
Theory and Observation
196
62 The Uncertainty of Empirical Data
197
63 Radical Empiricism
202
64 Holistic Rationalism
207
Appendix A
215
72 Identifications
216
Appendix B
268
82 Column Headings
269
Appendix C
315
Literature
333
Index
342
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