Babylonian Observations of Venus: Arcus Visionis,Atmospheric Extinction and Observational Practice

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Most probably this method was based on the Babylonian period relation for Venus of 8 lunar years − 4 lunar days, after which the first and last appearances of Venus return to almost exactly the same position in the sky. The oldest version of this period relation is found on tablet BM 45728 dating from the late seventh century b.c. ( Britton J. P. , “Treatments of annual phenomena in cuneiform sources”, Alter Orient und Altes Testament , ccxcvii (2002), 21–78). Babylonian period relations for all planets were applied later in a similar manner to compute the so-called “goal-year” texts known from the last three centuries b.c. For a recent detailed study, see Gray J. M. K. Steele J. M. , “Studies on Babylonian goal-year astronomy I: A comparison between planetary data in goal-year texts, almanacs and normal star almanacs”, Archive for history of exact sciences , lxii (2008), 553–600.

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See the works cited in ref. 22.

See Hunger H. Pingree D. , Astral sciences in Mesopotamia (Leiden, 1999).

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de Jong Foertmeyer , op. cit. (ref. 2).

Tousey Koomen , op. cit. (ref. 16).

de Jong , opera cit . (ref. 2, 2002, 2007) and de Jong Foertmeyer , op. cit. (ref. 2).

de Jong , op. cit. (ref. 2, 2002).

de Jong Foertmeyer , op. cit. (ref. 2).

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