Tag: solstice

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Almagest Book VII: On Precession

At the beginning of the last chapter, Ptolemy noted that the celestial sphere appears to have a rearward motion of its own known as precession of the equinoxes. This motion means that the position of the sun in the zodiacal signs slowly increase in advance as time passes. In particular, the sun was at the beginning of Aries in Ptolemy’s time, but since then has advanced such that today it lies near the beginning of Pisces.

We can see this mainly from the fact that the same stars do not maintain the same distance with respect to the solstical and equinocital points in our times as they had in former times: rather, the distance [of a given star] towards the rear with respect to [one of] the same points is found to be greater in proportion as time [of observation] is later.

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Data: Summer Solstice Observation 6/20/2020

This past weekend was the summer solstice. Since the sun achieves its highest declination on this day, which is related to the obliquity of the ecliptic, this is a fundamental parameter that I try to observe the altitude on the solstice when possible. I did this back in 2018 using the solar angle dial from Book I of the Almagest. This time, I brought out the quadrant as I did for the autumnal equinox in 2018 as well.

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Almagest Book III: On the Anomaly of the Sun – Basic Parameters

Now that we’ve laid out how the two hypotheses work and explored how they sometimes function similarly, it’s time to use one of them for the sun. But which one? Or do we need both?

For the sun, Ptolemy states that the sun has

a single anomaly, of such a kind that the time taken from least speed to mean shall always be greater than the time from mean speed to greatest.

In other words, the sun fits both models, but only requires one. Ptolemy chooses the eccentric model due to its simplicity.

But now it’s time to take the hypothesis from a simple toy, in which we’ve just shown the basic properties, and to start attaching hard numbers to it to make it a predictive model. To that end, Ptolemy states,

Our first task is to find the ratio of the eccentricity of the sun’s circle, that is, the ratio of which the distance between the center of the eccentre and the center of the ecliptic (located at the observer) bears to the radius of the eccentre.

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Almagest Book III: On the Length of the Year

If I were to summarize the books of the Almagest so far, I’d say that Book I is a mathematical introduction to a key theorem1 and an introduction to the celestial sphere for the simplest case of phenomenon at sphaera recta. In Book II, much of that work is extended to sphaera obliqua, but in both cases, we’ve only dealt with more or less fixed points on the celestial sphere: The celestial equator, ecliptic, and points within the zodiacal constellations based on the immovable stars.

But the ultimate goal of the Almagest and my project isn’t to study the unchanging sky; it’s to understand the changing sky: The sun, moon, and planets. Ptolemy decides to start with the position of the sun is a prerequisite to understanding the phases of the moon, and planets are more complicated with their retrograde motions. And to kick off the investigation of the motion of the sun, Ptolemy first begins by carefully defining a “year” noting

when one examines the apparent returns [of the sun] to [the same] equinox of solstice, one finds that the length of the year exceeds 365 days by less than $\frac{1}{4}$-day, but when one examines its return to the fixed stars, it is greater [than 365 $\frac{1}{4}$-days].

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Almagest Book II: Angle Between Ecliptic and Meridian – Symmetries

In my last post, I mentioned that entered a paper based on the rising sign calculations presented in this post into an A&S competition. This was a very interesting piece to do because it showed how well woven the roots are, as doing so made use of almost every section we’ve gone through previously. As such, it felt like a good capstone for book II. But it doesn’t end there.

Rather, Ptolemy decides to go on for several more chapters as this book is focused on the great circles on the celestial sphere. While we’ve covered the ecliptic and celestial equator pretty extensively, we have done less with the horizon and meridian which is where Ptolemy seeks to go for the last few chapters in this book. Specifically, we’ll be covering:

  • The angles between the ecliptic and meridian
  • The ecliptic and horizon
  • The ecliptic and an arc from horizon to the zenith (an altitude circle)

All followed by another summary chapter at various latitudes. As the title of this post may have indicated, we’ll be covering the first of these in this post1. Continue reading “Almagest Book II: Angle Between Ecliptic and Meridian – Symmetries”

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Almagest Book II: Calculation of Rising Times at Sphaera Obliqua for 10º Arcs

With the previous theorem about the ascensional differences complete, it’s time to move on to determine how to figure out the rising time of arcs of the ecliptic for 10º segments at various latitudes using what Ptolemy promises to be a shortcut in the math. In the modern sense it really doesn’t seem to be much of a shortcut, but that’s because with the assistance of calculator’s, the equations we were using previously seem much less daunting. If it had to be done by hand, I’m sure it would be far more tedious.

Instead, Ptolemy reduces the number of calculations by going through the proof regarding ascensional differences as well as making use of some previously calculated values to avoid having to do other calculations.

To get started, Ptolemy revises the previous drawing, making it a bit simpler by removing the ecliptic and renaming a few of the points, as well as changing a few definitions.

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Almagest Book II: Calculation of Rising Times at Sphaera Obliqua for Remaining Arcs

In the last post, we explored the rising time for one zodiacal sign which would comprise 30º of the ecliptic. Since the preliminary math is now out of the way, we can quickly do 60º of the ecliptic which constitutes Aries and Taurus. From there, we’ll be able to more quickly compute the remaining constellations as well. Continue reading “Almagest Book II: Calculation of Rising Times at Sphaera Obliqua for Remaining Arcs”

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Almagest Book II: Ratio of Gnomon Equinoctial and Solsticial Shadows

First off, what’s a gnomon?

Apparently it’s the part of a sundial that casts shadows. Now you know.

To start this next chapter, Ptolemy dives straight into a new figure, but I want to take a moment to justify it first. To begin, let’s start with a simple diagram. Just a side view of the meridian, the horizon, and the north celestial pole. The zenith is also marked (A).

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Almagest Book II: For What Regions, When, and How Often the Sun Reaches the Zenith

The fourth chapter in book two is a very short one. In fact, it’s a single paragraph so I almost didn’t dedicate an entire post to it but ultimately decided to as it didn’t really fit with either the previous or next chapter.

In this, Ptolemy says,

it is a straighforward computation to determine for what regions, when, and how often the sun reaches the zenith. For it is immediately obvious that for those beneath a parallel which is farther away from the equator than the 23;51,20º (approximately), which represents the distance of the summer solstice, the sun never reaches the zenith at all, while for those beneath the parallel which is exactly that distance, it reaches the zenith once a year, precisely at the summer solstice.

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