The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy

by Evans, James

• ISBN13: 9780195095395
• ISBN10: 0195095391
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The ancient astronomical tradition is one of impressive duration andrichness. It begins with planet observations by the Babylonians in the secondmillenium BC and includes the development of an astronomy based on philosophicaland geometrical principles by the Greeks from Artistotle and to Ptolemy. Arenaissance of astronomy began in the ninth-century Islam and culminated incentral Europe with the astronomical revolution of the sixteenth century.Through this long history, Akkadian, Greek, Arabic, and Latin were successivelythe languages of scientific learning, but it was the Greek period thatdetermined the fundamental character of Western astronomy. This book brings thereader into direct contact with ancient astronomy. Throughout the book twoquestions constantly recur: what evidence permits us to reconstruct theastronomy of the ancient past? How was astronony actually practiced? The book ismeticulously documented and makes full use of primary sources as well as modernhistorical scholarship. Richly illustrated, the book is most striking for theclose attention it pays to the details of ancient astronomical practice.

Table of Contents

ONE The Birth of Astronomy	3	(72)
1.1 Astronomy around 700 B.C.: Texts from Two Cultures	3	(8)
1.2 Outline of the Western Astronomical Tradition	11	(16)
1.3 Observation: The Use of the Gnomon	27	(1)
1.4 On the Daily Motion of the Sun	27	(4)
1.5 Exercise: Interpreting a Shadow Plot	31	(1)
1.6 The Diurnal Rotation	31	(8)
1.7 Observation: The Diurnal Motion of the Stars	39	(1)
1.8 Stars and Constellations	39	(5)
1.9 Earth, Sun, and Moon	44	(9)
1.10 The Annual Motion of the Sun	53	(5)
1.11 Observation: The Motion of the Moon	58	(1)
1.12 The Uses of Shadows	59	(4)
1.13 Exercise: Using Shadow Plots	63	(1)
1.14 The Size of the Earth	63	(3)
1.15 Exercise: The Size of the Earth	66	(1)
1.16 Observation: The Angular Size of the Moon	67	(1)
1.17 Aristarchus on the Sizes and Distances	67	(6)
1.18 Exercise: The Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon	73	(2)
TWO The Celestial Sphere	75	(54)
2.1 The Sphere in Greek Astronomy	75	(3)
2.2 Sphairopoiia: A History of Sphere Making	78	(7)
2.3 Exercise: Using a Celestial Globe	85	(2)
2.4 Early Writers on the Sphere	87	(4)
2.5 Geminus: Introduction to the Phenomena	91	(4)
2.6 Risings of the Zodiac Constellations: Telling Time at Night	95	(4)
2.7 Exercise: Telling Time at Night	99	(1)
2.8 Observation: Telling Time at Night	99	(1)
2.9 Celestial Coordinates	99	(6)
2.10 Exercise: Using Celestial Coordinates	105	(1)
2.11 A Table of Obliquity	105	(4)
2.12 Exercise: Using the Table of Obliquity	109	(1)
2.13 The Risings of the Signs: A Table of Ascensions	109	(11)
2.14 Exercise: On Tables of Ascensions	120	(1)
2.15 Babylonian Arithmetical Methods in Greek Astronomy: Hypsicles on the Risings of the Signs	121	(4)
2.16 Exercise: Arithmetic Progressions and the Risings of the Signs	125	(1)
2.17 Observation: The Armillary Sphere as an Instrument of Observation	125	(4)
THREE Some Applications of Spherics	129	(34)
3.1 Greek and Roman Sundials	129	(3)
3.2 Vitruvius on Sundials	132	(3)
3.3 Exercise: Making a Sundial	135	(5)
3.4 Exercise: Some Sleuthing with Sundials	140	(1)
3.5 The Astrolabe	141	(11)
3.6 Exercise: Using the Astrolabe	152	(1)
3.7 The Astrolabe in History	153	(5)
3.8 Exercise: Making a Latitude Plate for the Astrolabe	158	(5)
FOUR Calendars and Time Reckoning	163	(42)
4.1 The Julian and Gregorian Calendars	163	(7)
4.2 Exercise: Using the Julian and Gregorian Calendars	170	(1)
4.3 Julian Day Number	171	(3)
4.4 Exercise: Using Julian Day Numbers	174	(1)
4.5 The Egyptian Calendar	175	(6)
4.6 Exercise: Using the Egyptian Calendar	181	(1)
4.7 Luni-Solar Calendars and Cycles	182	(6)
4.8 Exercise: Using the Nineteen-Year Cycle	188	(2)
4.9 The Theory of Star Phases	190	(8)
4.10 Exercise: On Star Phases	198	(1)
4.11 Some Greek Parapegmata	199	(5)
4.12 Exercise: On Parapegmata	204	(1)
FIVE Solar Theory	205	(40)
5.1 Observations of the Sun	205	(5)
5.2 The Solar Theory of Hipparchus and Ptolemy	210	(6)
5.3 Realism and Instrumentalism in Greek Astronomy	216	(4)
5.4 Exercise: Finding the Solar Eccentricity	220	(1)
5.5 Rigorous. Derivation of the Solar Eccentricity	221	(2)
5.6 Exercise: On the Solar Theory	223	(3)
5.7 Tables of the Sun	226	(9)
5.8 Exercise: On the Tables of the Sun	235	(1)
5.9 Corrections to Local Apparent Time	235	(8)
5.10 Exercise: Apparent, Mean, and Zone Time	243	(2)
SIX The Fixed Stars	245	(44)
6.1 Precession	245	(2)
6.2 Aristotle, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy on the Fixedness of the Stars	247	(3)
6.3 Observation: Star Alignments	250	(1)
6.4 Ancient Methods for Measuring the Longitudes of Stars	250	(7)
6.5 Exercise: The Longitude of Spica	257	(2)
6.6 Hipparchus and Ptolemy on Precession	259	(3)
6.7 Exercise: The Precession Rate from Star Declinations	262	(2)
6.8 The Catalog of Stars	264	(10)
6.9 Trepidation: A Medieval Theory	274	(7)
6.10 Tycho Brahe and the Demise of Trepidation	281	(8)
SEVEN Planetary Theory	289
7.1 The Planets	289	(10)
7.2 The Lower Planets: The Case of Mercury	299	(2)
7.3 Observation: Observing the Planets	301	(1)
7.4 The Upper Planets: The Case of Mars	302	(3)
7.5 Exercise: On the Oppositions of Jupiter	305	(1)
7.6 The Spheres of Eudoxus	305	(7)
7.7 The Birth of Prediction: Babylonian Goal-Year Texts	312	(4)
7.8 Exercise: On Goal-Year Texts	316	(1)
7.9 Babylonian Planetary Theory	317	(4)
7.10 Babylonian Theories of Jupiter	321	(13)
7.11 Exercise: Using the Babylonian Planetary Theory	334	(3)
7.12 Deferent-and-Epicycle Theory, I	337	(5)
7.13 Greek Planetary Theory between Apollonius and Ptolemy	342	(5)
7.14 Exercise: The Epicycle of Venus	347	(1)
7.15 A Cosmological Divertissement: The Order of the Planets	347	(4)
7.16 Exercise: Testing Apollonius's Theory of Longitudes	351	(4)
7.17 Deferent-and-Epicycle Theory, II: Ptolemy's Theory of Longitudes	355	(4)
7.18 Exercise: Testing Ptolemy's Theory of Longitudes	359	(3)
7.19 Determination of the Parameters of Mars	362	(7)
7.20 Exercise: Parameters of Jupiter	369	(1)
7.21 General Method for Planet Longitudes	369	(3)
7.22 Exercise: Calculating the Planets	372	(1)
7.23 Tables of Mars	372	(12)
7.24 Exercise: Using the Tables of Mars	384	(1)
7.25 Ptolemy's Cosmology	384	(8)
7.26 Astronomy and Cosmology in the Middle Ages	392	(11)
7.27 Planetary Equatoria	403	(3)
7.28 Exercise: Assembly and Use of Schoner's Aequatorium Martis	406	(4)
7.29 Geocentric and Heliocentric Planetary Theories	410	(4)
7.30 Nicholas Copernicus: The Earth a Planet	414	(13)
7.31 Kepler and the New Astronomy	427
Frequently Used Tables
2.1 Progress of the Sun through the Zodiac	96
2.2 The Length of the Night	97
2.3 Table of Obliquity	106
2.4 Table of Ascensions	110
4.1 Equivalent Dates in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars	169
4.2-4.4 Julian Day Number	172
4.5 Some Important Egyptian/Julian Equivalents	178
4.6 Months and Days of the Egyptian Year	178
5.1-5.3 Tables of the Sun	228
5.4 The Equation of Time	236
7.1 Planet Longitudes at Ten-Day Intervals	290
7.2 Oppositions of Mars, 1948-1984	303
7.4 Modern Ptolemaic Parameters for Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn	368
7.5-7.7 Tables of Mars	374
Appendix: Patterns for Models	445	(8)
Notes	453	(12)
Bibliography	465	(8)
Index	473