A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy

Geminus and the concept of mean motion in Greco-Latin astronomy

“…It is now known that in this chapter GEMINUS presents the arithmetical principles and parameters underlying tables for daily lunar motion in longitude, of a sort we now have from Uruk [NzuGEBAUER 1969, 161--162;1975, 480481: cf JONES 1983. One must keep in mind that these astronomical tables consist only in columns of numbers and that they survive without anything we should count as an explanation.…”

Ibn al-Kammād’s Muqtabis zij and the astronomical tradition of Indian origin in the Iberian Peninsula

“…335-339) have slightly different tables for the stations: in the latter, the argument was modified, as well as the interval for the calculation of the entries (6 • in the Almagest, 3 • in the Handy Tables): cf. Neugebauer 1975Neugebauer , pp. 202-206, 1005Neugebauer -1006 The same table is found in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh State Library, MS 298, where it is attributed to Ibn al-Kammād in his lost zij al-Kawr c alā l-dawr (Mestres 1996, p. 422, andMestres 1999, p. 53).…”

Ptolemy and Purāṇa: Gods Born as Men

“…66 As boundaries of the ''inhabited world'' Ptolemy accepted in the north the island of Thule (63°), in the south the parallel south of the equator at which the length of longest daylight is equal to 13 h. This is termed the Anti-Meroë at 16;25°south latitude since Meroë, the parallel of the first climate at 16;25°north latitude marks the region north of the equator with a longest day of 13 h. The longitudinal extension is assumed to be 180°, ''from the Fortunate Isles to China''. 67 Thus, the inhabited universe, for Ptolemy, consisted of 180°of longitude and 80°of latitude (16;25°+ 63°). In this he differed from Marinus for whom the extent in latitude was from Thule (63°) in the north to the winter tropic (24°) south of the equator and in longitudinal extension was 15 h or 225°of longitude.…”