mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== <#> Hipparchus [Categories: Mathematicians, Geographers, Astronomers, Ancient Greeks] //For the Athenian tyrant, see Quick Facts about: *Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus)* Quick Summary not found for this subjectHipparchus (son of Pisistratus) .// *Hipparchus* (Quick Facts about: *Greek* A native or inhabitant of GreeceGreek /????????/) (circa 190 BC ? circa 120 BC) was a Quick Facts about: *Greek* A native or inhabitant of GreeceGreek Quick Facts about: *astronomer* A physicist who studies astronomyastronomer , astrologer, Quick Facts about: *geographer* An expert on geographygeographer , and Quick Facts about: *mathematician* A person skilled in mathematicsmathematician . The Quick Facts about: *ESA* Quick Summary not found for this subjectESA 's Quick Facts about: *Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission* Quick Summary not found for this subjectHipparcos Space Astrometry Mission was named after him. Hipparchus was born in Quick Facts about: *Nicaea* An ancient city in Bithynia; founded in the 4th century BC and flourished under the Romans; the Nicene Creed was adopted there in 325Nicaea (now in Turkey) and probably died on the island of Quick Facts about: *Rhodes* A Greek island in the southeast Aegean Sea 10 miles off the Turkish coast; the largest of the Dodecanese; it was colonized before 1000 BC by Dorians from ArgosRhodes . He is known to have been active at least from 147 BC to 127 BC. Hipparchus is considered the greatest astronomical observer, and by some the greatest astronomer altogether, of antiquity. He was the first Greek to develop quantitative and accurate models for the motion of the Sun and Moon. For this he made use of the observations and knowledge accumulated over centuries by the Quick Facts about: *Chaldeans* An inhabitant of ancient ChaldeaChaldeans from Quick Facts about: *Babylonia* An ancient kingdom in southern Mesopotamia; Babylonia conquered Israel in the 6th century BC and exiled the Jews to Babylon (where the Daniel became a counselor to the king)Babylonia . He was also the first to compile a Quick Facts about: *trigonometric* Quick Summary not found for this subjecttrigonometric table, which allowed him to solve any triangle. With his solar and lunar theories and his numerical trigonometry, he was probably the first to develop a reliable method to predict Quick Facts about: *solar eclipse* The moon interrupts light from the sunsolar eclipse s. His other achievements include the discovery of Quick Facts about: *precession* The act of preceding in time or order or rank (as in a ceremony)precession , the compilation of the first Quick Facts about: *star catalogue* Quick Summary not found for this subjectstar catalogue , and probably the invention of the Quick Facts about: *astrolabe* An early form of sextantastrolabe . Quick Facts about: *Claudius Ptolemaeus* Alexandrian astronomer who proposed a geocentric system of astronomy that was undisputed until Copernicus (2nd century AD)Claudius Ptolemaeus three centuries later depended much on Hipparchus. However, his synthesis of astronomy superseded Hipparchus's work: although Hipparchus wrote at least 14 books, only his commentary on the popular astronomical poem by Quick Facts about: *Aratus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAratus has been preserved by later copyists. As a consequence, we know comparatively little about Hipparchus. Life and work Most of what is known about Hipparchus comes from Quick Facts about: *Ptolemy* An ancient dynasty of Macedonian kings who ruled Egypt from 323 BC to 30 BC; founded by Ptolemy I and ended with CleopatraPtolemy 's (Quick Facts about: *2nd century* Quick Summary not found for this subject2nd century ) /Quick Facts about: *Almagest* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAlmagest / ("the great treatise"; ed. [Toomer 1981]), with additional references to him by Quick Facts about: *Pappus of Alexandria* Quick Summary not found for this subjectPappus of Alexandria and Quick Facts about: *Theon of Alexandria* Quick Summary not found for this subjectTheon of Alexandria (Quick Facts about: *4th century* Quick Summary not found for this subject4th century ) in their commentaries on the /Almagest/; from Quick Facts about: *Strabo* Quick Summary not found for this subjectStrabo 's /Geographia/ ("Geography"), and from Quick Facts about: *Pliny the Elder* Roman author of an encylclopedic natural history; died while observing the eruption of Vesuvius (23-79)Pliny the Elder 's /Quick Facts about: *Naturalis historia* Quick Summary not found for this subjectNaturalis historia / ("Natural history") (Quick Facts about: *1st century* Quick Summary not found for this subject1st century ). There is a strong tradition that Hipparchus was born in Quick Facts about: *Nicaea* An ancient city in Bithynia; founded in the 4th century BC and flourished under the Romans; the Nicene Creed was adopted there in 325Nicaea (Greek /??????/), Quick Facts about: *ancient* Quick Summary not found for this subjectancient district Quick Facts about: *Bithynia* An ancient country in northwestern Asia Minor in what is now Turkey; was absorbed into the Roman Empire by the end of the 1st century BCBithynia , (modern-day ?znik in province Quick Facts about: *Bursa* A city in northwestern TurkeyBursa ), in what today is Quick Facts about: *Turkey* A Eurasian republic in Asia Minor and the Balkans; achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1923Turkey . The exact dates of his life are not known, but Ptolemy attributes astronomical observations to him from 147 BC to 127 BC; earlier observations since 162 BC might also be made by him. The date of his birth (circa 190 BC) was calculated by Quick Facts about: *Delambre* Quick Summary not found for this subjectDelambre , based on clues in his work. Hipparchus must have lived some time after 127 BC because he analyzed and published his latest observations. Hipparchus obtained information from Quick Facts about: *Alexandria* The chief port of Egypt; located on the western edge of the Nile delta on the Mediterranean Sea; founded by Alexander the Great; the capital of ancient EgyptAlexandria as well as Quick Facts about: *Babylon* The chief city of ancient Mesopotamia and capitol of the ancient kingdom of BabyloniaBabylon , but it is not known if and when he visited these places. It is not known what Hipparchus economic means were and how he supported his scientific activities. Also his appearance is unknown: there are no contemporary portraits. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries Quick Facts about: *coin* A metal piece (usually a disc) used as moneycoin s were made in his honour in Bithynia that bear his name and show him with a Quick Facts about: *globe* A sphere on which a map (especially of the earth) is representedglobe ; this confirms the tradition that he was born there. Hipparchus is believed to have died on the island of Quick Facts about: *Rhodes* A Greek island in the southeast Aegean Sea 10 miles off the Turkish coast; the largest of the Dodecanese; it was colonized before 1000 BC by Dorians from ArgosRhodes , where he spent most of his later life ? Ptolemy attributes observations to him from Rhodes in the period from 141 BC to 127 BC. Hipparchus' main original works are lost. His only preserved work is /Toon Aratou kai Eudoxou Fainomenoon exegesis/ ("Commentary on the Phaenomena of Eudoxus and Aratus"). This is a critical commentary in two books on a popular poem by Quick Facts about: *Aratus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAratus based on the work by Quick Facts about: *Eudoxus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectEudoxus . It was published by Karl Manitius (/In Arati et Eudoxi Phaenomena/, Leipzig, 1894). Hipparchus also made a list of his major works, which apparently mentioned about 14 books, but which is only known from references by later authors. Hipparchus is recognized as the originator and father of scientific Quick Facts about: *astronomy* The branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a wholeastronomy . He is believed to be the greatest Greek astronomic observer, and many regard him as the greatest astronomer of ancient times, although Quick Facts about: *Cicero* A Roman statesman and orator remembered for his mastery of Latin prose (106-43 BC)Cicero gave preferences to Quick Facts about: *Aristarchus* A bright crater on the moonAristarchus of Quick Facts about: *Samos* Quick Summary not found for this subjectSamos . Some put in this place also Ptolemy of Alexandria. Hipparchus writings had been mostly superseded by those of Ptolemy, so later copyists have not preserved them for posterity. Also see the biographical articles by [Toomer 1978] and [Jones 2001]. Babylonian sources Many of the works of Greek scientists - mathematicians, astronomers, geographers - have been preserved up to the present time, or some aspects of their work and thoughts are still known through later references. However, achievements in these fields by middle-eastern civilizations, notably those in Quick Facts about: *Babylonia* An ancient kingdom in southern Mesopotamia; Babylonia conquered Israel in the 6th century BC and exiled the Jews to Babylon (where the Daniel became a counselor to the king)Babylonia , had been forgotten. After the discovery of the archeological sites in the 19th century, many writings on clay tablets have been found, some of them related to astronomy. Most known astronomical tablets have been described by A.Sachs, and later published by Otto Neugebauer in "Astronomical Cuneiform Texts" (3 vol.s; Princeton and London, 1955). Since the rediscovery of the Babylonian civilization, it has become apparent that Greek astronomers, and in particular Hipparchus, borrowed a lot from the Quick Facts about: *Chaldeans* An inhabitant of ancient ChaldeaChaldeans . F.X. Kugler demonstrated in his book /Die Babylonische Mondrechnung/ ("The Babylonian lunar computation", Freiburg im Breisgau, 1900) the following. Ptolemy had stated in his /Almagest/ IV.2 that Hipparchus improved the values for the Moon's periods known to him from "even more ancient astronomers" by comparing eclipse observations made earlier by "the Chaldeans", and by himself. However Kugler found that the periods that Ptolemy attributes to Hipparchus had already been used in Babylonian ephemerides, specifically the collection of texts nowadays called "System B" (sometimes attributed to Quick Facts about: *Kidinnu* Quick Summary not found for this subjectKidinnu ). Apparently Hipparchus only confirmed the validity of the periods he learned from the Chaldeans by his newer observations. It is clear that Hipparchus (and Ptolemy after him) had an essentially complete list of eclipse observations covering many centuries. Most likely these had been compiled from the "diary" tablets: these are clay tablets recording all relevant observations that the Chaldeans routinely made. Preserved examples date from 652 BC to Quick Facts about: *AD 130* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAD 130 , but probably the records went back as far as the reign of the Babylonian king Quick Facts about: *Nabonassar* Quick Summary not found for this subjectNabonassar : Ptolemy starts his chronology with the first day in the Egyptian calendar of the first year of Nabonassar, /i.e./ 26 February 747 BC. This raw material by itself must have been hard to use, and no doubt the Chaldeans themselves compiled extracts of /e.g./ all observed eclipses (some tablets with a list of all eclipses in a period of time covering a saros have been found). This allowed them to recognise periodic recurrences of events. Among others they used in System B (/cf./ /Almagest/ IV.2): 223 (synodic) months = 239 returns in anomaly (anomalistic month) = 242 returns in latitude (draconic month). This is now known as the Quick Facts about: *saros* Quick Summary not found for this subjectsaros period which is very useful for predicting Quick Facts about: *eclipse* One celestial body obscures anothereclipse s. 251 (synodic) months = 269 returns in anomaly 5458 (synodic) months = 5923 returns in latitude 1 synodic month = 29;31:50:08:20 days (sexagesimal; 29.53059413... days in decimals = 29 days 12 hours 44 min 3? s) The Babylonians expressed all periods in synodic Quick Facts about: *month* A time unit of 30 daysmonth s, probably because they used a Quick Facts about: *lunisolar calendar* A calendar based on both lunar and solar cycleslunisolar calendar . Various relations with yearly phenomena led to different values for the length of the year. Similarly various relations between the periods of the planets were known. The relations that Ptolemy attributes to Hipparchus in /Almagest/ IX.3 had all already been used in predictions found on Babylonian clay tablets. All this knowledge was transferred to the Greeks probably shortly after the conquest by Quick Facts about: *Alexander the Great* King of Macedon; conqueror of Greece and Egypt and Persia; founder of Alexandria (356-323 BC)Alexander the Great (331 BC). According to the late classical philosopher Quick Facts about: *Simplicius* Quick Summary not found for this subjectSimplicius (early 6th century AD), Alexander ordered the translation of the historical astronomical records under supervision of his chronicler Quick Facts about: *Callisthenes of Olynthus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectCallisthenes of Olynthus , who sent it to his uncle Quick Facts about: *Aristotle* One of the greatest of the ancient Athenian philosophers; pupil of Plato; teacher of Alexander the Great (384-322 BC)Aristotle . It is worth mentioning here that although Simplicius is a very late source, his account may be reliable. He spent some time in exile at the Sassanide (Persian) court, and may have accessed sources otherwise lost in the West. It is striking that he mentions the title /tèresis/ (Greek: guard) which is an odd name for a historical work, but is in fact an adequate translation of the Babylonian title /massartu/ meaning "guarding" but also "observing". Anyway, Aristotle's pupil Callippus of Cyzicus introduced his 76-year cycle, which improved upon the 19-year Quick Facts about: *Metonic cycle* Quick Summary not found for this subjectMetonic cycle , about that time. He had the first year of the his first cycle start at the summer solstice of 28 June 330 BC (Julian proleptic date), but later he seems to have counted lunar months from the first month after Alexander's decisive battle at Gaugamela in fall 331 BC. So Callippus may have obtained his data from Babylonian sources and his calendar may have been anticipated by Kidinnu. Also it is known that the Babylonian priest known as Quick Facts about: *Berossus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectBerossus wrote around 281 BC a book in Greek on the (rather mythological) history of Babylonia, the /Babyloniaca/, for the new ruler Quick Facts about: *Antiochus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAntiochus I; it is said that later he founded a school of Quick Facts about: *astrology* A pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moonastrology on the Greek island of Quick Facts about: *Kos* An Indian unit of length having different values in different localitiesKos . Another candidate for teaching the Greeks about Babylonian Quick Facts about: *astronomy* The branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a wholeastronomy /Quick Facts about: *astrology* A pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moonastrology was Quick Facts about: *Sudines* Quick Summary not found for this subjectSudines who was at the court of Quick Facts about: *Attalos Soter* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAttalos Soter late in the 3rd century B.C. In any case, the translation of the astronomical records required profound knowledge of the cuneiform script, the language, and the procedures, so it seems likely that it was done by some unidentified Chaldeans. Now the Babylonians dated their observations in their lunisolar calendar, in which months and years have varying lengths (29 or 30 days; 12 or 13 months respectively). At the time they did not use a regular calendar (such as based on the Quick Facts about: *Metonic cycle* Quick Summary not found for this subjectMetonic cycle like they did later), but started a new month based on observations of the Quick Facts about: *New Moon* The time at which the moon appears as a narrow waxing crescentNew Moon . This made it very tedious to compute the time interval between events. What Hipparchus may have done is transform these records to the Quick Facts about: *Egyptian calendar* Quick Summary not found for this subjectEgyptian calendar , which uses a fixed year of always 365 days (consisting of 12 months of 30 days and 5 extra days): this makes computing time intervals much easier. Ptolemy dated all observations in this calendar. He also writes that "All that he (=Hipparchus) did was to make a compilation of the planetary observations arranged in a more useful way" (/Almagest/ IX.2). Pliny states (/Naturalis Historia/ II.IX(53)) on eclipse predictions: "After their time (=Thales) the courses of both stars (=Sun and Moon) for 600 years were prophecied by Hipparchus, ...". This seems to imply that Hipparchus predicted eclipses for a period of 600 years, but considering the enormous amount of computation required, this is very unlikely. Rather, Hipparchus would have made a list of all eclipses from Nabonasser's time to his own. Other traces of Babylonian practice in Hipparchus work are: first Greek known to divide the circle in 360 degrees of 60 arc minutes. first consistent use of the sexagesimal number system. the use of the unit /pechus/ ("cubit") of about 2° or 2½°. use of a short period of 248 days = 9 anomalistic months. Also see G.J. Toomer (1981?): "Hipparchus and Babylonian Astronomy". Geometry and trigonometry Hipparchus is recognised as the first mathematician who compiled a Quick Facts about: *trigonometry* The mathematics of triangles and trigonometric functionstrigonometry table, which he needed when computing the Quick Facts about: *eccentricity* Strange and unconventional behavioreccentricity of the Quick Facts about: *orbit* The (usually elliptical) path described by one celestial body in its revolution about anotherorbit s of the Moon and Sun. He tabulated values for the Quick Facts about: *chord* A combination of three or more notes that blend harmoniously when sounded togetherchord function, which gives the length of the chord for each angle. He did this for a circle with a circumference of 21600 and a radius of (rounded) 3438 units: this has a unit length of 1 arcminute along its perimeter. He tabulated the chords for angles with increments of 7.5°. In modern terms, the chord of an angle equals twice the Quick Facts about: *sine* Ratio of the opposite side to the hypotenuse of a right-angled trianglesine of half of the angle, /i.e./: / chord(/A/) = 2*sin(/A//2)./ He described it in a work (now lost), called /toon en kuklooi eutheioon/ (/Of Lines Inside a Circle/) by Quick Facts about: *Theon of Alexandria* Quick Summary not found for this subjectTheon of Alexandria (Quick Facts about: *4th century* Quick Summary not found for this subject4th century ) in his commentary on the /Almagest/ I.10; his table seems to have survived in astronomical treatises in Quick Facts about: *India* A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947India , for instance the Surya Siddhanta. This was a significant innovation, because it allowed Greek astronomers to solve any triangle, and made it possible to make quantitative astronomical models and predictions using their preferred geometric techniques. See [Toomer 1973]. For his chord table Hipparchus must have used a better approximation for Quick Facts about: *?* Quick Summary not found for this subject? than the one from Quick Facts about: *Archimedes* Greek mathematician and physicist noted for his work in hydrostatics and mechanics and geometry (287-212 BC)Archimedes (between 3 + 1/7 and 3 + 10/71); maybe the one later used by Ptolemy: 3;8:30 (Quick Facts about: *sexagesimal* Quick Summary not found for this subjectsexagesimal ) (/Almagest/ VI.7); but it is not known if he computed an improved value himself. Hipparchus could construct his chord table using the Quick Facts about: *Pythagorean theorem* Quick Summary not found for this subjectPythagorean theorem and a Quick Facts about: *theorem* An idea accepted as a demonstrable truththeorem known to Archimedes. He also might have developed and used the theorem in plane geometry called Ptolemy's theorem, because it was proved by Ptolemy in his /Almagest/ (I.10) (later elaborated on by Quick Facts about: *Carnot* French physicist who founded thermodynamics (1796-1832)Carnot ). Hipparchus was the first to show that the Quick Facts about: *stereographic projection* Quick Summary not found for this subjectstereographic projection is Quick Facts about: *conformal* Quick Summary not found for this subjectconformal , and that it transforms circles on the sphere that do not pass through the center of projection to circles on the plane. This was the basis for the Quick Facts about: *astrolabe* An early form of sextantastrolabe . Besides geometry, Hipparchus also used arithmetic techniques from the Quick Facts about: *Chaldea* An ancient region of Mesopotamia lying between the Euphrates delta and the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Desert; settled in 1000 BC and destroyed by the Persians in 539 BC; reached the height of its power under Nebuchadnezzar IIChaldea ns. He was one of the first greek mathematicians to do this, and in this way expanded the techniques available to astronomers and geographers. There is no indication that Hipparchus knew Quick Facts about: *spherical trigonometry* The trigonometry of spherical trianglesspherical trigonometry , which was first developed by Quick Facts about: *Menelaus of Alexandria* Quick Summary not found for this subjectMenelaus of Alexandria in the Quick Facts about: *1st century* Quick Summary not found for this subject1st century . Ptolemy later used the new technique for computing things like the rising and setting points of the ecliptic, or to take account of the lunar Quick Facts about: *parallax* The apparent displacement of an object as seen from two different points that are not on a line with the objectparallax . Hipparchus may have used a globe for this (to read values off the coordinate grids drawn on it), as well as approximations from planar geometry, or arithmetical approximations developed by the Chaldeans. Astronomical instruments and astrometry Hipparchus is credited with the invention or improvement of several astronomical instruments, which were used for a long time with naked-eye observations. According to Quick Facts about: *Synesius* Quick Summary not found for this subjectSynesius of Ptolemais (Quick Facts about: *4th century* Quick Summary not found for this subject4th century ) he made the first /astrolabion/: this may have been an Quick Facts about: *armillary sphere* A celestial globe consisting of metal hoops; used by early astronomers to determine the positions of starsarmillary sphere (which Ptolemy however says he constructed, in /Almagest/ V.1); or the predecessor of the planar instrument called Quick Facts about: *astrolabe* An early form of sextantastrolabe (also mentioned by Quick Facts about: *Theon of Alexandria* Quick Summary not found for this subjectTheon of Alexandria ). With an astrolabe Hipparchus was the first to be able to measure the geographical Quick Facts about: *latitude* An imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equatorlatitude and Quick Facts about: *time* The continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the pasttime by observing stars. Previously this was done at daytime by measuring the shadow cast by a /Quick Facts about: *gnomon* Indicator provided by the stationary arm whose shadow indicates the time on the sundialgnomon /, or with the portable instrument known as /Quick Facts about: *scaphion* Quick Summary not found for this subjectscaphion /. Ptolemy mentions (/Almagest/ V.14) that he used a similar instrument as Hipparchus, called /dioptra/, to measure the apparent diameter of the Sun and Moon. Quick Facts about: *Pappus of Alexandria* Quick Summary not found for this subjectPappus of Alexandria described it (in his commentary on the /Almagest/ of that chapter), as did Quick Facts about: *Proclus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectProclus (Hypotyposis IV). It was a 4-foot rod with a scale, a sighting hole at one end, and a wedge that could be moved along the rod to exactly obscure the disk of Sun or Moon. Hipparchus also observed solar Quick Facts about: *equinox* Either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal lengthequinox es, which may be done with an equatorial ring: its shadow falls on itself when the Sun is on the Quick Facts about: *equator* An imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south polesequator (/i.e./ in one of the equinoctial points on the Quick Facts about: *ecliptic* The great circle representing the apparent annual path of the sun; the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun; makes an angle of about 23 degrees with the equatorecliptic ), but the shadow falls above or below the opposite side of the ring when the Sun is South or North of the equator. Ptolemy quotes (in /Almagest/ III.1 (H195)) a description by Hipparchus of an equatorial ring in Alexandria; a little further he describes two such instruments present in Alexandria in his own time. Geography Hipparchos wrote a critique in 3 books on the work of the geographer Quick Facts about: *Eratosthenes* Greek mathematician and astronomer who estimated the circumference of the earth and the distances to the moon and sun (276-194 BC)Eratosthenes of Cyrene (3rd century BC), called /Pròs tèn 'Eratosthénous geografían/ ("Against the Geography of Eratosthenes"). It is known to us from Quick Facts about: *Strabo* Quick Summary not found for this subjectStrabo of Amaseia, who in his turn critised Hipparchus in his own /Geografia/. Hipparchus apparently made many detailed corrections to the locations and distances mentioned by Eratosthenes. It seems he did not introduce many improvements in methods, but he proposed to determine the Quick Facts about: *geographical longitudes* Quick Summary not found for this subjectgeographical longitudes of different Quick Facts about: *cities* Quick Summary not found for this subjectcities at Quick Facts about: *lunar eclipse* The earth interrupts light shining on the moonlunar eclipse s (Strabo /Geografia/ 7). A lunar eclipse is visible simultaneously on half of the Earth, and the difference in longitude between places can be computed from the difference in local time when the eclipse is observed. His method would give the most accurate data as would any previous one, if it would be correctly carried out. However, it was never properly applied, and for this reason maps remained rather inaccurate until modern times. Lunar and solar theory Motion of the moon Hipparchus also studied the motion of the Quick Facts about: *Moon* Any natural satellite of a planetMoon and confirmed the accurate values for some periods of its motion that Chaldean astronomers had obtained before him. The traditional value (from Babylonian System B) for the mean synodic month is 29 days;31,50,28,20 (sexagesimal) = 29.53059429... d . Expressed as 29 days + 12 hours + 793/1080 hours this value has been used later in the Quick Facts about: *Hebrew calendar* (Judaism) the calendar used by the Jews; dates from 3761 BC (the assumed date of the creation of the world); a lunar year of 354 days is adjusted to the solar year by periodic leap yearsHebrew calendar (possibly from Babylonian sources). The Chaldeans also knew that 251 synodic months = 269 anomalistic months. Hipparchus extended this period by a factor of 17, because after that interval the Moon also would have a similar latitude, and it is close to an integer number of years (345). Therefore eclipses would reappear under almost identical circumstances. The period is 126007 days 1 hour (rounded). Hipparchus could confirm his computations by comparing eclipses from his own time (presumably 27 January 141 BC and 26 November 139 BC according to [Toomer 1980]), with eclipses from Babylonian records 345 years earlier (/Almagest/ IV.2; [Jones 2001]). Already Quick Facts about: *al-Biruni* Quick Summary not found for this subjectal-Biruni (/Qanun/ VII.2.II) and Copernicus (/de revolutionibus/ IV.4) noted that the period of 4267 lunations is actually about 5 minutes longer than the value for the eclipse period that Ptolemy attributes to Hipparchus. However, the best clocks and timing methods of the age had an accuracy of no better than 8 minutes. Modern scholars agree that Hipparchus rounded the eclipse period to the nearest hour, and used it to confirm the validity of the traditional values, rather than try to derive an improved value from his own observations. From modern ephemerides [Chapront /et al./ 2002] and taking account of the change in the length of the day (see Quick Facts about: *Delta-T* Quick Summary not found for this subjectDelta-T ) we estimate that the error in the assumed length of the synodic month was less than 0.2 s in the 4th century BC and less than 0.1 s in Hipparchus' time. Orbit of the Moon It had been known for a long time that the motion of the Moon is not uniform: its speed varies. This is called its *anomaly*, and it repeats with its own period; the anomalistic month. The Chaldeans took account of this arithmetically, and used a table giving the daily motion of the Moon according to the date within a long period. The Greeks however preferred to think in geometrical models of the sky. Quick Facts about: *Apollonius of Perga* Quick Summary not found for this subjectApollonius of Perga had at the end of the 3rd century BC proposed two models for lunar and planetary motion: 1. In the first, the Moon would move uniformly along a circle, but the Earth would be eccentric, /i.e./ at some distance of the center of the circle. So the apparent angular speed of the Moon (and its distance) would vary. 2. The Moon itself would move uniformly (with some mean motion in anomaly) on a secondary circular orbit, called *epicycle*, that itself would move uniformly (with some mean motion in longitude) over the main circular orbit around the Earth, called *deferent*; see Quick Facts about: *deferent and epicycle* Quick Summary not found for this subjectdeferent and epicycle . Apollonius demonstrated that these two models were in fact mathematically equivalent. However, all this was theory and had not been put to practice. Hipparchus was the first to attempt to determine the relative proportions and actual sizes of these orbits. Hipparchus devised a geometrical method to find the parameters from 3 positions of the Moon, at particular phases of its anomaly. In fact, he did this separately for the eccentric and the epicycle model. Ptolemy describes the details in the /Almagest/ IV.11. Hipparchus used 2 sets of 3 lunar eclipse observations, which he carefully selected to satisfy the requirements. The eccentric model he fitted to these eclipses from his Babylonian eclipse list: 22,23 December 383 BC, 18,19 June 382 BC, and 12,13 December 382 BC. The epicycle model he fitted to lunar eclipse observations made in Alexandria at 22 September 201 BC, 19 March 200 BC, and 11 September 200 BC. For the eccentric model, Hipparchus found for the ratio between the radius of the eccenter and the distance between the center of the eccenter and the center of the ecliptic (/i.e./ the observer on Earth): 3144 : 327+2/3 ; and for the epicycle model, the ratio between the radius of the deferent and the epicycle: 3122+1/2 : 247+1/2 . The somewhat weird numbers are due to the cumbersome unit he used in his chord table. The results are distinctly different. This is partly due to some sloppy rounding and calculation errors, for which Ptolemy critised him (he himself made rounding errors too...). Anyway, Hipparchus found inconsistent results; he later used the ratio of the epicycle model (3122+1/2 : 247+1/2), which is too small (60 : 4;45 hexadecimal): Ptolemy established a ratio of 60 : 5+1/4 . See [Toomer 1967]. Apparent motion of the Sun Before Hipparchus, Meton, Euktemon, and their pupils at Athens had made a solstice observation (i.e. timed the moment of the summer Quick Facts about: *solstice* Either of the two times of the year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equatorsolstice ) on June 27, 432 BC (Quick Facts about: *proleptic julian calendar* Quick Summary not found for this subjectproleptic julian calendar ). Quick Facts about: *Aristarchus* A bright crater on the moonAristarchus is said to have done so in 280 BC, and Hipparchus also had an observation by Quick Facts about: *Archimedes* Greek mathematician and physicist noted for his work in hydrostatics and mechanics and geometry (287-212 BC)Archimedes . Hipparchus himself observed the summer solstice in 135 BC, but he found observations of the moment of Quick Facts about: *equinox* Either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal lengthequinox more accurate, and he made many during his lifetime. Ptolemy gives an extensive discussion of Hipparchus' work on the length of the year in the /Almagest/ III.1, and quotes many observations that Hipparchus made or used, spanning 162 BC to Quick Facts about: *128* Quick Summary not found for this subject128 . Ptolemy quotes an equinox timing by Hipparchus (at 24 March 146 BC at dawn) that differs from the observation made on that day in Alexandria (at 5h after sunrise): Hipparchus may have visited Alexandria but he did not make his equinox observations there; presumably he was on Rhodes (at the same geographical longitude). He may have used his own armillary sphere or an equatorial ring for these observations. Hipparchus (and Ptolemy) knew that observations with these instruments are sensitive to a precise alignment with the equator. The real problem however is that atmospheric Quick Facts about: *refraction* The change in direction of a propagating wave (light or sound) when passing from one medium to anotherrefraction lifts the Sun significantly above the horizon: so its apparent Quick Facts about: *declination* A polite refusal of an invitationdeclination is too high, which changes the observed time when the Sun crosses the equator. Worse, the refraction decreases as the Sun rises, so it may appear to move in the wrong direction with respect to the equator in the course of the day - as Ptolemy mentions; however, Ptolemy and Hipparchus apparently did not realize that refraction is the cause. To the end of his career Hipparchus wrote a book called /Peri eniausíou megéthous/ ("On the Length of the Year") about his results. The established value for the Quick Facts about: *tropical year* The time for the earth to make one revolution around the sun, measured between two vernal equinoxestropical year , introduced by Callippus in or before 330 BC (possibly from Babylonian sources, see above), was 365 + 1/4 day. Hipparchus' equinox observations gave varying results, but he himself points out (quoted in /Almagest/ III.1(H195) ) that the observation errors by himself and his predecessors may have been as large as 1/4 day. So he used the old solstice observations, and determined a difference of about one day in about 300 years. So he set the length of the tropical year to 365 + 1/4 - 1/300 days (= 365.24666... days = 365 days 5 hours 55 min, which differs from the actual value (modern estimate) of 365.24219... days = 365 days 5 hours 48 min 45 s by only about 6 min). Between the solstice observation of Meton and his own, there were 297 years spanning 108478 days. This implies a tropical year of 365.24579... days = 365 days;14,44,51 (sexagesimal; = 365 days + 14/60 + 44/60^2 + 51/60^3 ), and this value has been found on a Babylonian clay tablet [A.Jones, 2001]. This is an indication that Hipparchus' work was known to Chaldeans. Another value for the year that is attributed to Hipparchus (by the astrologer Vettius Valens in the 1st century) is 365 + 1/4 + 1/288 days (= 365.25347... days = 365 days 6 hours 5 min), but this may be a corruption of another value attributed to a Babylonian source: 365 + 1/4 + 1/144 days (= 365.25694... days = 365 days 6 hours 10 min). It is not clear if this would be a value for the Quick Facts about: *sidereal year* The time for the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun, relative to the fixed starssidereal year (actual value at his time (modern estimate) /ca./ 365.2565 days), but the difference with Hipparchus' value for the tropical year is consistent with his rate of precession (see below). Orbit of the Sun Before Hipparchus the Chaldean astronomers knew that the lengths of the seasons are not equal. Hipparchus made equinox and solstice observations, and according to Ptolemy (/Almagest/ III.4) determined that spring (from spring equinox to summer solstice) lasted 94 + 1/2 days, and summer (from summer solstice to autumn equinox) 92 + 1/2 days. This is an unexpected result given a premise of the Sun moving around the Earth in a circle at uniform speed. Hipparchus' solution was to place the Earth not at the center of the Sun's motion, but at some distance from the center. This model described the apparent motion of the Sun fairly well (of course today we know that the Quick Facts about: *planet* Any of the celestial bodies (other than comets or satellites) that revolve around the sun in the solar systemplanet s like the Earth move in Quick Facts about: *ellipse* A closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through itellipse s around the Sun, but this was not discovered until Quick Facts about: *Johannes Kepler* German astronomer who first stated laws of planetary motion (1571-1630)Johannes Kepler published his first two laws of planetary motion in 1609). The value for the eccentricity attributed to Hipparchus by Ptolemy is that the offset is 1/24 of the radius of the orbit (which is too large), and the direction of the apogee would be at longitude 65.5° from the vernal equinox. Hipparchus may also have used another set of observations (94 + 1/4 and 92 + 3/4 days), which would lead to different values. The question remains if Hipparchus is really the author of the values provided by Ptolemy, who found no change 3 centuries later, and added lenghts for the autumn and winter seasons. Calendar / .../to be written ...// Distance, parallax, size of the Moon and Sun Hipparchus also undertook to find the distances and sizes of the Sun and the Moon. He published his results in a work of two books called /peri megethoon kai 'apostèmátoon/ ("On Sizes and Distances") by Pappus in his commentary on the /Almagest/ V.11; Theon of Smyrna (Quick Facts about: *2nd century* Quick Summary not found for this subject2nd century ) mentions the work with the addition "of the Sun and Moon". Hipparchus measured the apparent diameters of the Sun and Moon with his /diopter/. Like others before and after him, he found that the Moon's size varies as it moves on its (eccentric) orbit, but he found no perceptible variation in the apparent diameter of the Sun. He found that at the *mean* distance of the Moon, the Sun and Moon had the same apparent diameter; at that distance, the Moon's diamater fits 650 times into the circle, i.e. the mean apparent diameters are 360/650 = 0°33'14". Like others before and after him, he also noticed that the Moon has a noticeable Quick Facts about: *parallax* The apparent displacement of an object as seen from two different points that are not on a line with the objectparallax , i.e. that it appears displaced from its calculated position (compared to the Sun or stars), and the difference is greater when closer to the horizon. He knew that this is because the Moon circles the center of the Earth, but the observer is at the surface - Moon, Earth and observer form a triangle with a sharp angle that changes all the time. From the size of this parallax, the distance of the Moon as measured in Earth radii can be determined. For the Sun however, there was no observeable parallax (we now know that it is about 8.8", more than 10 times smaller than the resolution of the unaided eye). In the first book, Hipparchus assumes that the parallax of the Sun is 0, as if it is at infinite distance. He then analyzed a solar eclipse, presumably that of 14 March 190 BC. It was total in the region of the Hellespont (and in fact in his birth place Nicaea); at the time the Romans were preparing for war with Quick Facts about: *Antiochus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAntiochus III in the area, and the eclipse is mentioned by Quick Facts about: *Livy* Roman historian whose history of Rome filled 142 volumes (of which only 35 survive) including the earliest history of the war with Hannibal (59 BC to AD 17)Livy in his /Ab Urbe Condita/ VIII.2 . It was also observed in Alexandria, where the Sun was reported to be obscured for 4/5 by the Moon. Alexandria and Nicaea are on the same meridian. Alexandria is at about 31° North, and the region of the Hellespont at about 41° North; authors like Strabo and Ptolemy had fairly decent values for these geographical positions, and presumably Hipparchus knew them too. So Hipparchus could draw a triangle formed by the two places and the Moon, and from simple geometry was able to establish a distance of the Moon, expressed in Earth radii. Because the eclipse occurred in the morning, the Moon was not in the meridian, and as a consequence the distance found by Hipparchus was a lower limit. In any case, according to Pappus, Hipparchus found that the least distance is 71 (from this eclipse), and the greatest 83 Earth radii. In the second book, Hipparchus starts from the opposite extreme assumption: he assigns a (minimum) distance to the Sun of 470 Earth radii. This would correspond to a parallax of 7', which is apparently the greatest parallax that Hipparchus thought would not be noticed (for comparison: the typical resolution of the human eye is about 2' ; Quick Facts about: *Tycho Brahe* Quick Summary not found for this subjectTycho Brahe made naked eye observation with an accuracy downto 1' ). In this case, the shadow of the Earth is a cone rather than a cylinder as under the first assumption. Hipparchus observed (at lunar eclipses) that at the mean distance of the Moon, the diameter of the shadow cone is 2+½ lunar diameters. That apparent diameter is, as he had observed, 360/650 degrees. With these values and simple geometry, Hipparchus could determine the mean distance; because it was computed for a minumum distance of the Sun, it is the maximum mean distance possible for the Moon. With his value for the excentricity of the orbit, he could compute the least and greatest distances of the Moon too. According to Pappus, he found a least distance of 62, a mean of 67+1/3, and consequently a greatest distance of 72+2/3 Earth radii. With this method, as the parallax of the Sun decreases (i.e. its distance increases), the minimum limit for the mean distance is 59 Earth radii - exactly the mean distance that Ptolemy later derived. Hipparchus thus had the problematic result that his minimum distance (from book 1) was greater than his maximum mean distance (from book 2). He was intellectually honest about this discrepancy, and probably realized that especially the first method is very sensitive to the accuracy of the observations and parameters (in fact, modern calculations show that the size of the solar eclipse at Alexandria must have been closer to 9/10 than to the reported 4/5). Ptolemy later measured the lunar parallax directly (/Almagest/ V.13), and used the second method of Hipparchus' with lunar eclipses to compute the distance of the Sun (/Almagest/ V.15). He criticizes Hipparchus for making contradictory assumptions, and obtaining conflicting results (/Almagest/ V.11): but apparently he failed to understand Hipparchus strategy to establish limits consistent with the observations, rather than a single value for the distance. His results were the best so far: the actual mean distance of the Moon is 60.3 Earth radii, within his limits from book 2. Theon of Smyrna wrote that according to Hipparchus, the Sun is 1880 times the size of the Earth, and the Earth 27 times the size of the Moon; apparently this refers to volumes, not diameters. From the geometry of book 2 it follows that the Sun is at 2550 Earth radii, and the mean distance of the Moon is 60½ radii. Similarly, Cleomedes quotes Hipparchus for the sizes of the Sun and Earth as 1050:1 ; this leads to a mean lunar distance of 61 radii. Apparently Hipparchus later refined his computations, and derived accurate single values that he could use for predictions of solar eclipses. See [Toomer 1974] for a more detailed discussion. Eclipses Pliny (/Naturalis Historia/ II.X) tells us that Hipparchus demonstrated that lunar eclipses can occur 5 months apart, and solar eclipses 7 months (instead of the usual 6 months); and the Sun can be hidden twice in 30 days, but as seen by different nations. Ptolemy discussed this a century later at length in /Almagest/ VI.6. The geometry, and the limits of the positions of Sun and Moon when a solar or lunar eclipse is possible, are explained in /Almagest/ VI.5. Hipparchus apparently made similar calculations. The result that two solar eclipses can occur 1 month apart is important, because this can not be based on observations: one is visible on the nortern and the other on the southern hemisphere - as Pliny indicates -, and the latter was inaccessible to the Greek. Prediction of a solar eclipse, /i.e./ exactly when and where it will be visible, requires a solid lunar theory and proper treatment of the lunar parallax. Hipparchus must have been the first to be able to do this. A rigorous treatment requires spherical trigonometry, but Hipparchus may have made do with planar approximations. He may have discussed these things in /Peri tes kata platos meniaias tes selenes kineseoos/ ("On the monthly motion of the Moon in latitude"), a work mentioned in the /Quick Facts about: *Suda* Quick Summary not found for this subjectSuda /. Pliny also remarks that "and he also discovered for what exact reason, although the shadow causing the eclipse must from sunrise onward be below the earth, it happened once in the past that the moon was eclipsed in the west while both luminaries were visible above the earth." (translation H.Rackham (1938), Loeb classical library 330). Toomer (1980) argued that this must refer to the large total lunar eclipse of 26 November 139 BC, when over a clean sea horizon as seen from the citadel of Rhodes, the Moon was eclipsed in the North-West just after the Sun rose in the South-East. This would be the second eclipse of the 345-year interval that Hipparchus used to verify the traditional Babylonian periods: this puts a late date to the development of Hipparchus' lunar theory. We do not know what "exact reason" Hipparchus found for seeing the Moon eclipsed while apparently it was not in exact opposition to the Sun. Parallax lowers the altitude of the luminaries; refraction raises them, and from a high point of view the horizon is lowered. Star catalogue After that in 135 BC, enthusiastic about a Quick Facts about: *nova* A star that ejects some of its material in the form of a cloud and become more luminous in the processnova star in the constellation of Quick Facts about: *Scorpius* A large zodiacal constellation between Libra and SagittariusScorpius , he measured with an equatorial armillary sphere Quick Facts about: *ecliptical coordinates* Quick Summary not found for this subjectecliptical coordinates of about 850 (falsely quoted elsewhere as 1600 or 1080) and in 129 BC he made first big Quick Facts about: *star catalogue* Quick Summary not found for this subjectstar catalogue . He also knew the works /Phainomena/ (/Phenomena/). That poem, known as /Phaenomena/ or /Arateia/, describes the Quick Facts about: *constellation* A configuration of stars as seen from the earthconstellation s and the Quick Facts about: *star* (astronomy) a celestial body of hot gases that radiates energy derived from thermonuclear reactions in the interiorstar s that form them. Hipparchus'commentary contains many measurements of stellar position and times for rising, culmination, and setting of the constellations treated inn the /Phaenomena/, and these are likely to have been based on measurements of stellar positions?and /Enoptron/ (/Mirror of Nature/) of Quick Facts about: *Eudoxus of Cnidus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectEudoxus of Cnidus , who had near Quick Facts about: *Cyzicus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectCyzicus on the southern coast of the Quick Facts about: *Sea of Marmara* An inland sea in northwestern Turkey; linked to the Black Sea by the Bosporus and linked to the Aegean by the DardanellesSea of Marmara his school and through Aratus' astronomical Quick Facts about: *epic* A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deedsepic poem /Phenomena/ Eudoxus' sphere, which was made from metal or stone and where there were marked constellations, brightest stars, Quick Facts about: *tropic of Cancer* A line of latitude about 23 degrees North of the equatortropic of Cancer and Quick Facts about: *tropic of Capricorn* A line of latitude about 23 degrees South of the equatortropic of Capricorn . These comparisons embarrassed him because he couldn't put together Eudoxus' detailed statements with his own observations and observations of that time. From all this he found that coordinates of the stars and the Sun had systematically changed. Their celestial latitudes ? remained unchanged, but their celestial longitudes ? had reduced as would equinoctial points, intersections of ecliptic and celestial equator, move with progressive velocity every year for 1/100'. This map served him to find any changes on the sky but unfortunately it is not preserved today. His star map was thoroughly modified as late as 1000 years later in Quick Facts about: *964* Quick Summary not found for this subject964 by Al Sufi and 1500 years later (1437) by Quick Facts about: *Ulugh Beg* Quick Summary not found for this subjectUlugh Beg . Later, Quick Facts about: *Halley* English astronomer who used Newton's laws of motion to predict the period of a comet (1656-1742)Halley would use his star catalogue to discover proper motions as well. His work speaks for itself. Another loss is that we know almost nothing about Hipparchus' life (this was stressed by Quick Facts about: *Fred Hoyle* An English astrophysicist and advocate of the steady state theory of cosmology; described processes of nucleosynthesis inside stars (1915-2001)Fred Hoyle ). In his star map Hipparchus drew the position of every star on the basis of its celestial latitude (its angular distance from the Quick Facts about: *ecliptic* The great circle representing the apparent annual path of the sun; the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun; makes an angle of about 23 degrees with the equatorecliptic plane) and its celestial longitude (its angular distance from an arbitrary point, for instance as is custom in astronomy from Quick Facts about: *vernal equinox* March 21vernal equinox ). The system from his star map was also transferred to maps for Earth. Before him longitudes and latitudes were used by Quick Facts about: *Dicaearchus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectDicaearchus of Quick Facts about: *Messana* Quick Summary not found for this subjectMessana , but they got their meanings in coordinate net not until Hipparchus. Quick Facts about: *Celestial bodies* Quick Summary not found for this subjectCelestial bodies Hipparchus in 130 BC wrote about an Quick Facts about: *open cluster* Quick Summary not found for this subjectopen cluster , the Quick Facts about: *M44* Quick Summary not found for this subjectM44 Praesepe (NGC 2632) as a "Little Quick Facts about: *Cloud* A visible mass of water or ice particles suspended at a considerable altitudeCloud " or "Cloudy Star". Before him the object was known to Quick Facts about: *Aratus* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAratus circa 260 BC, who wrote about it as a "Little Quick Facts about: *Mist* A thin fog with condensation near the groundMist ". Hipparchus also included this object in his famous star catalogue. The cluster was also known to Chinese astronomers. [Moore 1994], [10] / .../to be extended ...// Quick Facts about: *Celestial coordinate system* Quick Summary not found for this subjectCelestial coordinate system s Delambre in his /Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne/ (1817) concluded that Hipparchus knew and used a real (celestial) Quick Facts about: *equatorial coordinate system* Quick Summary not found for this subjectequatorial coordinate system , directly with the Quick Facts about: *right ascension* (astronomy) the angular distance eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the intersection of the hour circle that passes through the body; expressed in hours and minutes and second; used with declination to specify positions on theright ascension and Quick Facts about: *declination* A polite refusal of an invitationdeclination (or with its complement, Quick Facts about: *polar distance* Quick Summary not found for this subjectpolar distance ). Later Otto Neugebauer (1899-1990) in his /A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy/ (1975) rejected Delambre's claims. Brightness of stars Hipparchus had in 134 BC ranked stars in six magnitude classes according to their brightness: he assigned the value of 1 to the 20 brightest stars, to weaker ones a value of 2, and so forth to the stars with a class of 6, which can be barely seen with the naked eyes. This scheme was later adopted by Quick Facts about: *Ptolemy* An ancient dynasty of Macedonian kings who ruled Egypt from 323 BC to 30 BC; founded by Ptolemy I and ended with CleopatraPtolemy and a similar system is still in use today. (See Quick Facts about: *Apparent magnitude* Quick Summary not found for this subjectApparent magnitude .) Hipparchus and Astrology In addition to his other writings dealing with astronomical topics, the work of Hipparchus (flourished second half of second century BC) dealing with the calculation and prediction of celestial positions would have been very useful to those engaged in the sort of Quick Facts about: *astronomy* The branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a wholeastronomy known as Quick Facts about: *astrology* A pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moonastrology . Quick Facts about: *Astrology* A pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets and sun and moonAstrology developed in the Quick Facts about: *Greco-Roman* Quick Summary not found for this subjectGreco-Roman world during the Hellenistic period, borrowing many elements from Babylonian astronomy; some historians have suggested that Hipparchus played a key role in this. Remarks made by Quick Facts about: *Pliny the Elder* Roman author of an encylclopedic natural history; died while observing the eruption of Vesuvius (23-79)Pliny the Elder (who died Quick Facts about: *79* Quick Summary not found for this subject79 AD, following the eruption of the Quick Facts about: *volcano* A mountain formed by volcanic materialvolcano Quick Facts about: *Mount Vesuvius* A volcano in southwestern Italy on the Mediterranean coast; a Plinian eruption in 79 AD buried Pompeii and killed Pliny the Elder; last erupted in 1944Mount Vesuvius ), in his Natural History Book 2. 24, suggest that some Quick Facts about: *ancient* Quick Summary not found for this subjectancient authors did regard Hipparchus as an important figure in the Quick Facts about: *history of astrology* Quick Summary not found for this subjecthistory of astrology . Pliny claimed that Hipparchus 'can never be sufficiently praised, no one having done more to prove that man is related to the stars and that our souls are a part of heaven.' Precession of the equinoxes (146 BC-130 BC) Hipparchus is perhaps most famous for having been the first to measure the Quick Facts about: *precession* The act of preceding in time or order or rank (as in a ceremony)precession of the Quick Facts about: *equinox* Either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal lengthequinox es. There is some suggestion that the Quick Facts about: *Babylonians* The ideographic and syllabic writing system in which the ancient Babylonian language was writtenBabylonians may have known about precession but it appears that Hipparchus was to first to really understand it and measure it. According to al-Battani Chaldean astronomers had distinguished the Quick Facts about: *tropical* Quick Summary not found for this subjecttropical and Quick Facts about: *sidereal year* The time for the earth to make one complete revolution around the sun, relative to the fixed starssidereal year . He stated they had around 330 BC an estimation for the length of the sidereal year to be S_K = 365 days 6 hours 11 min (= 365.2576388 days) with an error of (about) 110 s. This phenomenon was probably also known to Quick Facts about: *Kidinnu* Quick Summary not found for this subjectKidinnu around 314 BC. A. Biot and Delambre attribute the discovery of precession also to old Chinese astronomers. Hipparchus and his predecessors mostly used simple instruments for astronomical calculations, such as the Quick Facts about: *gnomon* Indicator provided by the stationary arm whose shadow indicates the time on the sundialgnomon , Quick Facts about: *astrolabe* An early form of sextantastrolabe , Quick Facts about: *armillary sphere* A celestial globe consisting of metal hoops; used by early astronomers to determine the positions of starsarmillary sphere etc. Additionally, as first in the history he correctly explained this with retrogradical movement of vernal point ? over the Quick Facts about: *ecliptic* The great circle representing the apparent annual path of the sun; the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun; makes an angle of about 23 degrees with the equatorecliptic for about 45", 46" or 47" (36" or 3/4' according to Ptolemy) per annum (today's value is ?'=50.387", 50.26") and he showed the Earth's axis is not fixed in space. By comparing his own measurements of the position of the equinoxes to the star Quick Facts about: *Spica* The brightest star in VirgoSpica during a lunar eclipse at the time of equinox with those of Euclid's contemporaries (Quick Facts about: *Timocharis* Quick Summary not found for this subjectTimocharis of Alexandria (circa 320 BC?260 BC), Aristyllus 150 years earlier, the records of Chaldean astronomers (especially Kidinnu's records), and observations of a temple in Thebes, Egypt, that was built in around 2000 BC) he still later observed that the equinox had moved 2° relative to Spica. He also noticed this motion in other stars. He obtained a value of not less than 1° in a century. The modern value is 1° in 72 years. After him many Greek and Arab astronomers had confirmed this phenomenon. Ptolemy compared his catalogue with those of Aristyllus, Timocharis, Hipparchus and the observations of Quick Facts about: *Agrippa* Roman general who commanded the fleet that defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium (63-12 BC)Agrippa and Quick Facts about: *Menelaus* (Greek mythology) the king of Sparta at the time of the Trojan War; brother of Agamemnon; husband of HelenMenelaus of Alexandria from the early Quick Facts about: *1st century* Quick Summary not found for this subject1st century and he finally confirmed Hipparchus' empirical fact that poles of the celestial equator in one Platonic year (approximately 25,777 sidereal years) encircle the ecliptical pole. The diameter of these cicles is equal to the inclination of ecliptic. The equinoctial points in this time traverse the whole ecliptic and they move 1° in a century. This velocity is equal to that calculated by Hipparchus. Because of these accordances Delambre, P. Tannery and other French historians of astronomy had wrongly jumped to conclusions that Ptolemy recorded his star catalogue from Hipparchus' with an ordinary extrapolation. This was not known until 1898 when Marcel Boll and others had found that Ptolemy's catalogue differs from Hipparchus' not only in the number of stars but in other respects. This phenomenon was named by Ptolemy just because the vernal point ? leads the Sun. In Latin /praecesse/ means "to overtake" or "to outpass", and today also means to twist or to turn. Its own name shows this phenomenon was discovered practically before its theoretical explanation, otherwise it would have been given a better term. Many later astronomers, physicists and mathematicians had occupied themselves with this problem, practically and theoretically. The phenomenon itself had opened many new promising solutions in several branches of Quick Facts about: *celestial mechanics* The branch of astronomy concerned with the application of Newton's laws of motion to the motions of heavenly bodiescelestial mechanics : Quick Facts about: *Thabit ibn Qurra* Quick Summary not found for this subjectThabit ibn Qurra 's theory of trepidation and oscillation of equinoctial points, Quick Facts about: *Isaac Newton* English mathematician and physicist; remembered for developing the calculus and for his law of gravitation and his three laws of motion (1642-1727)Isaac Newton 's general gravitational law (which had explained it in full), Quick Facts about: *Leonhard Euler* Swiss mathematician (1707-1783)Leonhard Euler 's kinematic equations and Quick Facts about: *Joseph Lagranges* Quick Summary not found for this subjectJoseph Lagrange's Quick Facts about: *equations of motion* Quick Summary not found for this subjectequations of motion , Quick Facts about: *Jean dAlemberts* Quick Summary not found for this subjectJean d'Alembert's dynamical theory of the movement of the rigid body, some algebraic solutions for special cases of precession, Quick Facts about: *John Flamsteed* Quick Summary not found for this subjectJohn Flamsteed 's and Quick Facts about: *James Bradley* Quick Summary not found for this subjectJames Bradley 's difficulties in the making of precise telescopic star catalogues, Quick Facts about: *Friedrich Bessel* Quick Summary not found for this subjectFriedrich Bessel 's and Quick Facts about: *Simon Newcomb* United States astronomer (1835-1909)Simon Newcomb 's measurements of precession, and finally the precession of perihelion in Quick Facts about: *Albert Einstein* Physicist born in Germany who formulated the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity; Einstein also proposed that light consists of discrete quantized bundles of energy (later called photons) (1879-1955)Albert Einstein 's Quick Facts about: *General Theory of Relativity* A generalization of special relativity to include gravity (based on the principle of equivalence)General Theory of Relativity . Lunisolar precession causes the motion of point ? by the ecliptic in the opposite direction of the apparent solar year's movement and the circulation of Quick Facts about: *celestial pole* One of two points of intersection of the Earth's axis and the celestial spherecelestial pole . This circle becomes a spiral because of additional ascendancy of the planets. This is planetary precession where the ecliptical plane swings from its central position for ±4° in 60,000 years. The angle between ecliptic and celestial equator ? = 23° 26' is reducing for 0.47" per annum. Also, the point ? slides by equator for /p/ = 0.108" per annum now in the same direction as the Sun. The sum of precessions gives an annual /general precession in longitude/ ? = 50.288" which causes the origination of tropical year. See also: Quick Facts about: *Apparent magnitude* Quick Summary not found for this subjectApparent magnitude Quick Facts about: *Astrometry* The branch of astronomy that deals with the measurement of the position and motion of celestial bodiesAstrometry Quick Facts about: *History of astrology* Quick Summary not found for this subjectHistory of astrology Geminus (of Rhodes) (10 BC - circa Quick Facts about: *60* The cardinal number that is the product of ten and six60 ) Quick Facts about: *Mira* Quick Summary not found for this subjectMira Quick Facts about: *Mithraism* Ancient Persian religion; popular among Romans during first three centuries a.d.Mithraism Quick Facts about: *Star catalogue* Quick Summary not found for this subjectStar catalogue s Literature Edition and translation: Karl Manitius: /In Arati et Eudoxi Phaenomena/, Leipzig, 1894. G.J.Toomer (1967): /The Size of the Lunar Epicycle According to Hipparchus/. Centaurus *12*(3), 145..150 . G.J.Toomer (1973): /The Chord Table of Hipparchus and the Early History of Greek Trigonometry/. Centaurus *18*, 6..28 . G.J.Toomer (1974): "Hipparchus on the Distances of the Sun and Moon". Arch.Hist.Exact Sci. /14/, 126..142 . G.J.Toomer (1978): /Hipparchus/ in "Dictionary of Scientific Biography" *15*, 207..224 . G.J.Toomer (1980): /Hipparchus' Empirical Basis for his Lunar Mean Motions/, Centaurus *24*, 97..109 . G.J. Toomer (1981?): "Hipparchus and Babylonian Astronomy", (?) Patrick Moore (1994): /Atlas of the Universe/, Octopus Publishing Group LTD (Slovene translation and completion by Toma? Zwitter and Savina Zwitter (1999): /Atlas vesolja/), 225 . A.Jones: /Hipparchus/ in "Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics", Nature Publishing Group, 2001 . J.Chapront, M.Chapront Touze, G.Francou (2002): "A new determination of lunar orbital parameters, precession constant, and tidal acceleration from LLR measurements". Astron.Astrophys. *387*, 700..709 . External links general: [1] Hipparchus mentioned as Hipparchos in a history of mankind [2] A brief view by Carmen Rush on Hipparchus' stellar catalogue [3] A lot of original Wikipedian articles (upto 2002-09-20) were transposed here [4] Page at the University of St. Andrews [5] Page at the Quick Facts about: *University of Cambridge* Quick Summary not found for this subjectUniversity of Cambridge [6] University of Cambridge's Page about Hipparchus' sole surviving work [7] Page at the Quick Facts about: *University of Oregon* Quick Summary not found for this subjectUniversity of Oregon Precession: [8] Cavendish Laboratory briefly about Hipparchus' celestial dynamics and generally about the precession of the Earth's main axis [9] David Ulansey about Hipparchus's understanding of the precession Celestial bodies: [10] M44 Praesepe at SEDS (Quick Facts about: *University of Arizona* Quick Summary not found for this subjectUniversity of Arizona ): http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m044.html More Subjects form Category Quick Facts about: *Aesop* Greek author of fables (circa 620-560 BC)Aesop Quick Facts about: *Alexander Balas* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAlexander Balas Quick Facts about: *Agathocles* Quick Summary not found for this subjectAgathocles Quick Facts about: *Herodotus* The ancient Greek known as the father of history; his accounts of the wars between the Greeks and Persians are the first known examples of historical writing (425-485 BC)Herodotus Quick Facts about: *Homer* An ancient Hebrew unit of capacity equal to 10 baths or 10 ephahsHomer Quick Facts about: *Hesiod* Greek poet whose existing works describe rural life and the genealogies of the gods and the beginning of the world (eighth century BC)Hesiod Quick Facts about: *Ptolemy* An ancient dynasty of Macedonian kings who ruled Egypt from 323 BC to 30 BC; founded by Ptolemy I and ended with CleopatraPtolemy Quick Facts about: *Plutarch* Greek biographer who wrote Parallel Lives (46?-120 AD)Plutarch Quick Facts about: *Sappho* The Greek lyric poet of Lesbos; much admired although only fragments of her poetry have been preserved (6th century BC)Sappho * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * The source of this article is Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia. 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