Ancient stellar observations: Timocharis, Aristyllus, Hipparchus, Ptolemy – the dates and accuracies. (English) Zbl 0554.01002
By way of a statistical analysis of the ancient observations of stellar declinations preserved in Hipparchus’ “Commentary on Aratos” and in Ptolemy’s “Almagest” the author convincingly deduces the corresponding dates and accuracies of observation. This leads to dating Aristyllus (–260) a generation later than Timocharis (–290) and to an astounding accuracy of 5’ for Aristyllus’ observations. Also you learn to distinguish clearly between on one hand Hipparchus’ “Commentary”-data from the 140s B.C. and of quarter degree accuracy and on the other Hipparchus’ “Almagest”-data from around 130 B.C. and comparable in accuracy to Aristyllus’ results. The latter speaks in favour of assuming that Hipparchus produced a star catalogue, now lost, but probably to be traced in the “Almagest” star catalogue.
Independently of the author’s study Dennis Rawlins has arrived at very similar conclusions which of course strengthens their credibility.
Independently of the author’s study Dennis Rawlins has arrived at very similar conclusions which of course strengthens their credibility.
Reviewer: Kr.P.Moesgaard
Keywords:
observational astronomy in antiquity; star declination; observational accuracy; Timocharis; Aristyllus; Hipparchus; Ptolemy; star catalogueReferences:
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