The Latitude of the Observer of the Almagest Star Catalogue

Typical arguments are given in Peters C. H. F. Nobel E. B. , Ptolemy's catalog of stars (Washington, D.C., 1915); Newton R. R. , The crime of Claudius Ptolemy (Baltimore, 1977); idem, “Comments on ‘Was Ptolemy a fraud’ by Owen Gingerich”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxi (1980), 388–99; Dennis Rawlins, “An investigation of the ancient star catalog”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific , xciv (1982), 359–73; Owen Gingerich, “Was Ptolemy a fraud?”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxi (1980), 253–66; idem, “Ptolemy revisited: A reply to R. R. Newton”, ibid. , xxii (1981), 40–44; idem, The great Copernicus chase (Cambridge, Mass., 1992), 24–30; Evans James , “On the origin of the Ptolemaic star catalogue”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xviii (1987), 155–72 and 234–78; Grasshoff Gerd , The history of Ptolemy's star catalogue (New York, 1990); and Dambis A. K. Efremov Yu. N. , “Dating Ptolemy's star catalogue through proper motions: The Hipparchan epoch”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxxi (2000), 115–34.

Lundmark K. , “Luminosities, colours, diameters, densities, masses of the stars”, Handbuch der Astrophysik , v (1932), 233ff. Gingerich , The great Copernicus chase (ref. 1), 27–29, also considers the distribution of stars excluded from the Almagest star catalogue.

Rawlins , “An investigation of the ancient star catalog” (ref. 1).

Shevchenko M. , “Analysis of errors in the star catalogues of Ptolemy and Ulugh Beg”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxi (1990), 187–201.

Schaefer B. E. , “Predicting heliacal rising and setting”, Sky & telescope , lxx (1985), 261–3; idem, “Atmospheric extinction effects on stellar alignments”, Archaeoastronomy , no. 10 (1986), S32–42; idem, “Heliacal rise phenomena”, ibid. , no. 11, S19–33; idem, “Lunar visibility and the Crucifixion”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxxi (1990), 53–67; idem, “Length of the lunar month”, Archaeoastronomy , no. 17 (1992), S32–42; idem, “Astronomy and the limits of vision”, Vistas in astronomy , xxxvi (1993), 311–61; idem, “Lunar crescent visibility”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxxvii (1996), 759–68; idem, “To the visual limits”, Sky & telescope , xcv/5 (1998), 57–60; idem and Liller W. , “Refraction near the horizon”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific , cii (1990), 796–803; Doggett L. Schaefer B. E. , “Lunar crescent visibility”, Icarus , cvii (1993), 388–403.

Peters Knobel , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Toomer G. J. , Ptolemy's Almagest (Princeton, 1998), 341–99.

Hoffleit D. , Yale bright star catalogue (New Haven, 1997).

Meeus J. , Astronomical algorithms (Richmond, Va, 1991), 126–8.

Cash W. , “Parameter estimation in astronomy through application of the likelihood ratios”, Astrophysical journal , ccxxviii (1979), 939–47.

Brahe Tycho , Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata (Prague, 1602).

Rawlins Dennis , “Tycho's star catalog: The first critical edition”, Dio , iii (1993), 3–106.

Ibid. , 45.

Wlodarczyk J. , “Observing with the armillary sphere”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xviii (1987), 173–95. It would be of great interest for a modern observer to make extensive and repeated measurements of many star positions with Ptolemy's methods. This programme could reveal realities that would be missed by armchair theorists. For example, what is the interaction of construction errors, latitude errors, and polar alignment errors in star longitudes? Can these normal errors create systematic sine-wave errors in longitude with arbitrary phase so as to invalidate the argument in Rawlins , “An investigation of the ancient star catalog” (ref. 1).

Evans , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Shevchenko , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Peters Knobel , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Toomer , op. cit. (ref. 7), 341–99.

Rawlins , “Tycho's star catalog” (ref. 12), 45.

Shevchenko , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Newton , The crime of Claudius Ptolemy (ref. 1).

Ibid. .

Schaefer , “Astronomy and the limits of vision” (ref. 5).

Schaefer , “Heliacal rise phenomena” (ref. 5).

Pickering K. A. , “The clarity of the ancient atmosphere”, Dio , ix (1999), 2–6, presents a compilation of the arcus visionis values from Ptolemy's books. However, his calculations of the corresponding k values are completely erroneous and are to be disregarded. Pickering had attempted to use my model of heliacal rising, but he did not allow the star altitudes to rise above the horizon and this mistake invalidates his use of my model.

Schaefer , “Astronomy and the limits of vision” (ref. 5).

D'Almeida G. A. Loepke P. Shettle E. P. , Atmospheric aerosols: Global climatology and radiative characteristics (Hampton, 1991); Hess M. Koepke P. Schult I. , “Optical properties of aerosols and clouds: The software package OPAC”, Bulletin of the American Meterological Society , x (1998), 831–44; http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/∼uh234an/www/radaer/gads_des.html.

Levin Z. Ganor E. Gladstein V. , “The effects of desert particles coated with sulfate on rain formation in the eastern Mediterranean”, Journal of applied meteorology , xxxv (1996), 1511–23; Levin Z. Lindberg J. D. , “Size distribution, chemical composition, and optical properties of urban and desert aerosols in Israel”, Journal of geophysical research , Ixxxiv (1979), 6941–50; Levin Z. , private communications, 1999.

Schaefer , “Astronomy and the limits of vision” (ref. 5).

Stickland D. J. Lloyd C. Pike C. D. Walker E. N. , “Photometric properties of atmospheric dust over the La Palma Observatory”, Observatory , cvii (1987), 74–78.

Morales C. , Saharan dust (Chichester, 1979).

Rawlins , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Schaefer , “Astronomy and the limits of vision” (ref. 5).

Ibid. .

Pilachowski C. A. Africano J. L. Goodrich B. D. Binkert W. S. , “Sky brightness at the Kitt Peak National Observatory”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific , ci (1989), 707–12.

Garstang R. H. , “Night-sky brightness at observatories and sites”, ibid. , 306–29.

Schaefer , “Astronomy and the limits of vision” (ref. 5).

Schaefer B. E. , “Telescopic limiting magnitudes”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific , cii (1990), 212–29.

Blackwell H. R. , “Contrast thresholds of the human eye”, Journal of the Optical Society of America , xxxvi (1946), 624–43.