Celestial timekeeping relied in the first instance on the movements of the stars and planets. The principal systematic positions of planets are recorded in ephemerides, which are primarily predictions, not observations. Prior to the invention of printing, ephemerides are extremely rare, which gives lie to the widespread mythology that astronomers before the days of printing were eagerly observing the heavens to add epicycles to improve the accuracy of the tables.
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Similar content being viewed by others ReferencesJ.L.E. Dreyer, History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1906), p. 344
O. Gingerich, in Kepler versus Lansbergen: On Computing Ephemerides 1632–1662, ed. by R.L. Kremer, J. Wlodarczyk. Johannes Kepler: From Tübingen to Zagan, Studia Copernicana, vol XLII 2009 (Warsaw, 1970) pp. 113–117
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J. Thomann, in An Arabic Ephemeris for the Year 931–932 CE, ed. by A. Kaplony, et al., From Bawit to Marw (Leiden, 2015a), p. 115
J. Thomann, in An Arabic Ephemeris for the Year 931–932 CE, p. 115, ed. by A. Kaplony, et al., From Bawit to Marw (Leiden, 2015b), p. 116
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance in the early part of this essay from Richard Kremer, Alexander Jones, and Johannes Thomann.
Author information Authors and AffiliationsHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
Owen Gingerich
Correspondence to Owen Gingerich .
Editor information Editors and AffiliationsTime Department, International Bureau for Weights and Measures, Sevres, France
Elisa Felicitas Arias
Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, Krugersdorp, South Africa
Ludwig Combrinck
Vatican Observatory, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Pavel Gabor
HM Nautical Almanac Office, UK Hydrographic Office HM Nautical Almanac Office, Taunton, Somerset, United Kingdom
Catherine Hohenkerk
Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
P. Kenneth Seidelmann
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper Cite this paperGingerich, O. (2017). The Role of Ephemerides from Ptolemy to Kepler. In: Arias, E., Combrinck, L., Gabor, P., Hohenkerk, C., Seidelmann, P. (eds) The Science of Time 2016. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 50. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59909-0_3
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Published: 26 September 2017
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