The Stars in the Classical and Medieval Traditions

0525215 - ASÚ 2021 RIV CZ eng M - Monography Chapter
Hadrava, Petr
Medieval catalogues of stars.
The Stars in the Classical and Medieval Traditions. Ondrejov: Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 2019, s. 115-169. ISBN 978-80-907269-1-8
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA17-03314S
Institutional support: RVO:67985815
Keywords : catalogues of stars * medieval * description
OECD category: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)

Medieval catalogues of stars combined the textual description of positions of stars with respect to constellation figures with quantitative data in terms of ecliptical coordinates and magnitudes. The choice of stars and the values of coordinates were taken from the Ptolemy's star catalogue. The ecliptical longitudes were updated for precession, the knowledge of which was, however, influenced by the hypothesis of trepidation. In this contribution the theory of trepidation is reviewed and its calculation using the Menelaus's theorem is derived. A transcription of the star catalogue from the manuscript Prague, National Library XIV E 37 is also presented.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0309405