The history of Ptolemy's star catalogue
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The history of Ptolemy's star catalogue
(Studies in the history of mathematics and physical sciences, 14)
Springer-Verlag, c1990
- : Berlin
Available at 24 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780387971810
Description
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.
Table of Contents
1 The Stars of the Almagest.- 1.1 The Documents.- 1.1.1 Persons.- 1.1.2 Methodological Background.- 1.1.3 The Almagest on Fixed Stars.- 1.2 The Arabic Revision of the Almagest.- 2 Accusations.- 2.1 Tycho Brahe.- 2.2 Laplace and Lalande.- 2.3 Delambre's Investigations.- 3 The Rehabilitation of Ptolemy.- 3.1 The Number of Hipparchan Stars.- 3.2 Supplementary Catalogues.- 3.2.1 Bjoernbo's New Catalogue.- 3.2.2 Dreyer's 1/4 Degree Stars.- 3.2.3 Dreyer II.- 3.2.4 Fotheringham.- 3.3 The Reconstruction of the Hipparchan Catalogue.- 3.3.1 The Determination of the Precession.- 3.3.2 Dreyer's 1/4 degree stars.- 3.3.3 Peters' Hypotheses of two Observation Instruments.- 3.3.4 Graduation of the Astrolabe.- 3.3.5 The Epoch of Observation for the Hipparchan Coordinates.- 3.4 Gundel's List of Hipparchan Stars.- 3.5 Precession and Solar Theory.- 3.5.1 Pannekoek's Calculation of Precession.- 3.5.2 The Hipparchan Solar Theory.- 3.6 Accusations.- 3.6.1 The Observation of Regulus and Spica.- 3.6.2 The Measurements of Declination.- 3.6.3 Stellar Positions from Occultations by the Moon.- 3.6.4 Fraction of the Degrees.- 4 The Analysis of the Star Catalogue.- 4.1 The Catalogue in the Almagest.- 4.1.1 Critical Edition of the Catalogue.- 4.1.2 Recalculation of the Coordinates for the time of Hipparchus.- 4.1.3 Identification of Stars.- 4.1.4 Errors in the Almagest.- 4.2 Criticism of Vogt.- 4.2.1 Vogt's Interpretation of Delambre's Precession Table.- 4.2.2 Reconstruction of Coordinates.- 4.2.3 The Accuracy of the Reconstructed Coordinates.- 4.2.4 Vogt's Proof of Independent Observations.- 4.2.5 Statistical Test for Independent Data.- 4.2.6 Dating.- 4.3 Gundel's Stars.- 5 Structures in Ptolemy's Star Catalogue.- 5.1 Star Maps.- 5.2 Multiple Sources.- 5.2.1 Dreyer's Paradigm.- 5.3 Method of Selective Error Distribution.- 5.3.1 Cluster-Analysis.- 5.4 Errors of the Solar Theory.- 5.5 Fractions of Degree.- 5.5.1 Fractions of Degrees in Latitude.- 5.5.2 Fractions of Degree in Longitude.- 5.6 Hipparchus' Commentary on Aratus.- 5.6.1 Sources.- 5.6.2 Numerical Values.- 5.7 Calculation of Phenomena.- 5.7.1 Local Sidereal Time.- 5.7.2 Simultaneous Rising and Setting.- 5.7.3 Culmination.- 5.8 Deviations from Reality.- 5.8.1 Comparing two Catalogues.- 5.8.2 From Observation to Phenomena.- 5.8.3 New Ways of Comparison.- 5.8.4 The Globe.- 5.8.5 More Details.- 5.9 Reconstruction.- 6 Theory and Observation.- 6.1 The Aristotelian Heritage.- 6.2 The Uncertainty of Empirical Data.- 6.3 Radical Empiricism.- 6.4 Holistic Rationalism.- 7 Appendix A.- 7.1 Stars and Constellations.- 7.2 Identifications.- 8 Appendix B.- 8.1 Transformation Formulae.- 8.2 Column Headings.- 9 Appendix C.- 9.1 Column Headings.- 10 Literature.- 11 Index.
- Volume
-
: Berlin ISBN 9783540971818
Table of Contents
Contents: Introduction.- The Stars of the Almagest.- Accusations.- The Rehabilitation of Ptolemy.- The Analysis of the Star Catalogue.- Structures in Ptolemy's Star Catalogue.- Theory and Observation.- Appendix A.- Stars and Constellations.- Identifications.- Appendix B.- Transformation Formulae.- Column Headings.- Appendix C.- Column Headings.- Literature.- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"