Article ID: CBB844292126

The gravitational influence of Jupiter on the Ptolemaic value for the eccentricity of Saturn (2021)

unapi

The gravitational influence of Jupiter on Saturn produces, among other things, non-negligible changes in the eccentricity of Saturn that affect the magnitude of error of Ptolemaic astronomy. The value that Ptolemy obtained for the eccentricity of Saturn is a good approximation of the real eccentricity—including the perturbation of Jupiter—that Saturn had during the time of Ptolemy's planetary observations or a bit earlier. Therefore, it seems more probable that the observations used for obtaining the eccentricity of Saturn were done near Ptolemy’s time, and rather unlikely earlier than the first century AD. Even if this is not quite a demonstration that Ptolemy used observations of his own, my argument increases its probability and practically discards the idea that Ptolemy borrowed values or observations from astronomers further back than the first century AD, such as Hipparchus or the Babylonians.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB844292126/

Similar Citations

Article Wilson, Curtis; Harper, William; (2014)
The Coming-To-Be of Hansen’s Method (/isis/citation/CBB001202203/)

Book Usher, Peter D.; (2015)
Shakespeare and Saturn: Accounting for Appearances (/isis/citation/CBB001510005/)

Article John Steele; (2019)
An Early Compilation of Saturn Observations from Babylon (/isis/citation/CBB365653299/)

Article Bryan, James; (2007)
E. E. Barnard and the Eclipse of Iapetus in 1889 (/isis/citation/CBB000831605/)

Article Teije de Jong; (2021)
A study of Babylonian planetary theory III. The planet Mercury (/isis/citation/CBB229121263/)

Article Roshdi Rashed; Erwan Penchèvre; (2020)
Ibn Al-Haytham et le mouvement d'enroulement (/isis/citation/CBB675559540/)

Book Simplicius, of Cilicia; Bowen, Alan C.; (2013)
Simplicius on the Planets and Their Motions: In Defense of a Heresy (/isis/citation/CBB001550762/)

Article J. M. Steele; E. L. Meszaros; (2021)
A study of Babylonian records of planetary stations (/isis/citation/CBB685624061/)

Chapter Alexander Jones; (2015)
Theon of Smyrna and Ptolemy on Celestial Modelling in Two and Three Dimensions (/isis/citation/CBB676687346/)

Article Christián C. Carman; (2019)
A Possible Date for Ptolemy’s Development of a Model for the Second Lunar Anomaly (/isis/citation/CBB205575975/)

Article Gerd Graßhoff; Florian Mittenhuber; Elisabeth Rinner; (2017)
Of Paths and Places: The Origin of Ptolemy’s Geography (/isis/citation/CBB825092664/)

Chapter Alexander Jones; (2016)
Interpolated Observations and Historical Observational Records in Ptolemy’s Astronomy (/isis/citation/CBB629558072/)

Article Steele, John M.; (2000)
A Re-analysis of the Eclipse Observations in Ptolemy's Almagest (/isis/citation/CBB000111306/)

Article Gamini, Amir Mohammad; (2012)
A Survey of the Arguments for the Immobility and Centricity of the Earth in the Hay'a Books (/isis/citation/CBB001510314/)

Chapter Stephan Heilen; (2015)
Paul of Middelburg’s Prognosticum for the years 1484 to 1504 (/isis/citation/CBB139894962/)

Article Christián C. Carman; (2021)
The Tychonic Method for Calculating the Ratio between the Eccentricities of Mars (/isis/citation/CBB973202474/)

Authors & Contributors
Steele, John M.
Carman, Christián Carlos
Jones, Alexander
Meszaros, E. L.
Elisabeth Rinner
Harper, William
Concepts
Astronomy
Observation
Orbits; planets
Saturn
Cosmology
Jupiter
Time Periods
Ancient
16th century
19th century
17th century
Renaissance
Medieval
Places
Mesopotamia
Middle and Near East
Greece
Alexandria (Egypt)
Institutions
Lick Observatory
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment