The Babylonian First Visibility of the Lunar Crescent: Data and Criterion

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Sachs A. J. , “A classification of the Babylonian astronomical tablets of the Seleucid period”, Journal of cuneiform studies , ii (1948), 271–90.

Epping J. , Astronomische aus Babylon (Freiburg, 1889).

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Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1996), 25.

The phrases “identical with” and “followed”, which describe the length of the month, have been introduced by Hunger in substitution of the very brief original cuneiform text.

Stephenson F. R. Fatoohi L. J. , “The Babylonian unit of time”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxv (1994), 99–110.

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1988), 12.

Kugler F. X. , Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel , ii (Münster, 1909/1910), 547–50; Neugebauer O. , Astronomical cuneiform texts: Babylonian ephemerides of the Seleucid period for the motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets , i (Princeton, 1955), 39; Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1988), 22.

Fatoohi L. J. Stephenson F. R. , “Angular measurements in Babylonian astronomy”, Archiv für Orientforschung , xliv/xlv (1997/98), 210–14.

Stephenson F. R. Fatoohi L. J. , “Lunar eclipse times recorded in Babylonian history”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxiv (1993), 255–67.

Neugebauer , op. cit. (ref. 14), 39.

Stephenson Fatoohi , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Sachs Hunger , opera cit. (ref. 9).

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1988), 115.

Ibid. 167.

Ibid. 341.

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1989), 205.

Ibid. 451.

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1988), 59.

Ibid. 351.

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1989), 19.

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1996), 193.

Parker R. A. Dubberstein W. H. , Babylonian chronology 626 b.c. — a.d. 75 (Providence, 1956).

Schoch K. , “Astronomical and calendrical tables”, in Langdon S. Fotheringham J. K. , The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga: A solution of Babylonian chronology by means of the Venus observations of the First Dynasty (Oxford, 1928). For further details of the program, see Fatoohi Louay J. , “A computer program for the conversion of Babylonian into Julian dates”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxix (1998), 378–9.

Sachs Hunger , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1988), 49.

Ibid. 305.

Chapront-Touzé M. Chapront J. , “ELP2000–85: A semi-analytical lunar ephemeris adequate for historical times”, Astronomy and astrophysics , cxc (1988), 342–52.

Ibid. .

Dickey J. O. , “Lunar laser ranging — a continuing legacy of the Apollo Program”, Science , cclxv (1994), 482–90.

Stephenson F. R. , Historical eclipses and the rotation of the Earth (Cambridge, 1997).

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Morrison L. V. Stephenson F. R. , “Contemporary geophysics from Babylonian clay tablets”, Contemporary physics , xxxviii (1997), 13–23.

Stephenson F. R. Morrison L. V. , “Long-term fluctuation in the Earth's rotation: 700 b.c. to a.d. 1990”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society , A, cccli (1995), 165–202.

Bretagnon P. , “Théorie du mouvement de l'ensemble des planètes: Solution VSOP82”, Astronomy and astrophysics , cxiv (1982), 278–88; Bretagnon P. Simon J.-L. , Planetary programs and tables from −4000 to + 2800 (Richmond, Virginia, 1986).

Bretagnon P. Francou G. , “Planetary theories in rectangular and spherical variables: VSOP87 solutions”, Astronomy and astrophysics , ccii (1988), 309–15.

Neugebauer , op. cit. (ref. 14), 41.

Bruin F. , “The first visibility of the lunar crescent”, Vistas in astronomy , xxi (1977), 331–58, p. 333.

See, for instance, Ilyas M. , “Lunar crescent visibility criterion and Islamic calendar”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxxv (1994), 425–61; Schaefer , op. cit. (ref. 2, 1988).

King D. , “Some early Islamic tables for determining lunar crescent visibility”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , d (1987), 185–225.

Neugebauer , op. cit. (ref. 14).

Neugebauer , The exact sciences in Antiquity (Providence, 1957), 115.

Table 2 is adapted from Neugebauer, op. cit. (ref. 14), 43.

Ibid. 43.

Ibid. 67 and 84; Neugebauer O. , A history of ancient mathematical astronomy (Berlin, 1975), 539–40.

Schaefer , opera cit. (ref. 2); Doggett Schaefer , op. cit. (ref. 3).

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

Schoch , op. cit. (ref. 30), 95.

Neugebauer O. , “The Babylonian method for the computation of the last visibilities of Mercury”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , xcv (1951), 110–16.

Schoch , op. cit. (ref. 30), 98.

Fotheringham J. K. , “The visibility of the lunar crescent”, in Langdon Fotheringham , The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga (ref. 30), 45–48, p. 48.

Neugebauer O. , op. cit. (ref. 54).

Neugebauer P. V. , Astronomische Chronologie , ii (Berlin and Leipzig, 1929), Table E 21.

Parker Dubberstein , op. cit. (ref. 29).

Huber P. J. , “Astronomical dating of Babylonian I and UR III”, Monographic journals of the Near East, Occasional papers , i/4 (1982), 107–99.