A few years ago, I read... The ancients observed Mars returning to the same point every 47 years in relationship to the background stars, the Sun & Earth. Did I get that right and does anyone have a source/link?
Question Did the Ancients observe Mars returning to the same point every 47 years in relationship to the Stars, the Sun & Earth?
- Thread starter Brad Watson - Miami
- Start date
Wikipedia reports this, "The 47-year cycle of Mars: after 47 years - 22 synodic periods of 780 days each - Mars returns to the same position among the stars and is in the same relationship to the Earth and Sun. The ancient Mesopotamians discovered this cycle.[8]", 47 (number)
FYI for any interested. Mars is a fascinating study in arguments concerning the testing of the heliocentric solar system vs. geocentric solar system. Tycho Brahe in late 1500s made great efforts to measure the Mars parallax and refute Copernicus. See Tycho Brahe's Copernican campaign Tycho Brahe failed. Cassini and Richer in 1672 using telescopes measured the parallax of Mars. The solar system dimension and size started to fill in. Later followed the solar parallax and distance to the Sun, i.e. the astronomical unit. The ancient world did not know how far away Mars was, though some could see Mars retrograde motion from time to time, e.g. the work of Claudius Ptolemy.
rod: I AM the one who wrote that on Wikipedia 47. I used the link http://spaces.imperial.edu/russell.lavery/Ast100/Lectures/Ast100Topic05.html , but can it be found anywhere else?
Brad - I do not know of other references to Mars in ancient Mesopotamian observations, perhaps there may be references in Claudius Ptolemy work from near 150 AD. I enjoy ancient astronomy but in my studies, the views or interpretations we have today - depend upon the translations and preservation of various clay tablets recovered. In archaeology, clay tablets from Mesopotamia like Babylon and Assyria, are assigned library references or numbers. What is the reference number to the original clay tablet(s) and who is the scholar that translated the material showing the ancient astronomy knowledge about Mars? In the ancient world observations, these folks did not have instruments like Tycho Brahe so how accurate their positions were for Mars among the constellations I do not know as they made observations. Stellarium software provides the ability to calculate position changes and so too Starry Night - commonly used by space.com reports. Starry Night allows simulations back to about 4500 BC and check planetary configurations. When it comes to ancient world astronomy, especially before the time of Claudius Ptolemy - I look for extant texts and their age, i.e. how old are they (are the extant texts long removed from the history claimed?), how accurate are the translations? Do we have original clay tablet material documented and catalogued for Mesopotamian astronomy? I use NASA ADS system and sometimes find reports on ancient world astronomy there. NASA ADS
Brad, I do not see this about Mars in Starry Night Pro Plus 8 I use. The Admin for the forum may know because space.com uses Starry Night in some of their charts published.---Rod
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