http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Steele, John M. *A re-analysis of the eclipse observations in *Ptolemy's* {\bf Almagest} .* Centaurus 42, No.2, 89-108 (2000). 2000 /ISSN:/ 0008-8994 1600-0498 /URL:/ http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0008-8994 /Description:/ Three groups of observations of lunar *eclipses* are reported in *Ptolemy's* {\it Almagest}. The first group (ten *eclipses*) is based upon observations made by Babylonian astronomers between 720 B. C. and 381 B. C.; the second group ranges in date from 201 B. C. to 141 B. C. and includes five *eclipses* observed by early Greek astronomers. The four *eclipses* of the third group (between A. D. 125 and A. D. 136) were observed by *Ptolemy* himself and his contemporaries. In his analysis of the three types of lunar *eclipses* described by *Ptolemy*, the author finds distinct differences in their variations from modern computation. Although the Babylonian observations appear to be the least accurate, they show only a negligible systematic error in their timing. On the other hand, the systematic error in the timing of the early Greek observations is very serious. A remarkable trend of the Babylonians is to overestimate the extent of small *eclipses* and to underestimate the extent of large *eclipses*. For practical reasons, *Ptolemy* switched from using Babylonian to Greek eclipse observations where they were available for him, because he knew that his correction for the difference in longitude between Babylon and Alexandria was not exact and that this deficiency could seriously affect the derivation of his parameters. ?2001-2003 EULER Consortium Supported by the IST Programme of the European Community: Project EULER-TAKEUP (IST-2000-29445) EDBM indexing and retrieval software: ? 2001 Cellule MathDoc , UJF & CNRS