Ephemeris

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For the 18th-century Greek newspaper, see Efimeris.
In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (plural: ephemerides; from Latin
ephemeris, "diary", from Greek: , ephmeris, "diary, journal")[1][2][3][4] gives the positions
of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky at a given
time or times. Historically, positions were given as printed tables of values, given at regular
intervals of date and time. Modern ephemerides are often computed electronically from
mathematical models of the motion of astronomical objects and the Earth. Even though the
calculation of these tables was one of the first applications of mechanical computers, printed
ephemerides are still produced, as they are useful when computational devices are not available.
The astronomical position calculated from an ephemeris is given in the spherical polar
coordinate system of right ascension and declination. Some of the astronomical phenomena of
interest to astronomers are eclipses, apparent retrograde motion/planetary stations, planetary
ingresses, sidereal time, positions for the mean and true nodes of the moon, the phases of the
Moon, and the positions of minor celestial bodies such as Chiron.
Ephemerides are used in celestial navigation and astronomy. They are also used by some
astrologers.

Contents
[hide]

1 History

2 Modern ephemeris

3 See also

4 Notes

5 References

6 External links

History[edit]

A Latin translation of al-Khwrizm's zj, page from Corpus Christi College MS 283

Alfonsine tables

Page from Almanach Perpetuum

1st millennium BC Ephemerides in Babylonian astronomy.

2nd century AD the Almagest and the Handy Tables of Ptolemy

8th century AD the zj of Ibrhm al-Fazr

9th century AD the zj of Muh ammad ibn Ms al-Khwrizm

12th century AD the Tables of Toledo based largely on Arabic zj sources of Islamic
astronomy were edited by Gerard of Cremona to form the standard European
ephemeris until the Alfonsine Tables.

13th century the Zj-i lkhn (Ilkhanic Tables) were compiled at the Maragheh
observatory in Persia.

13th century the Alfonsine Tables were compiled in Spain to correct anomalies in the
Tables of Toledo, remaining the standard European ephemeris until the Prutenic Tables
almost 300 years later.

1408 Chinese ephemeris table (copy in Pepysian Library, Cambridge, UK (refer book
'1434'); Chinese tables believed known to Regiomontanus).

1496 the Almanach Perpetuum of Abrao ben Samuel Zacuto (one of the first books
published with a movable type and printing press in Portugal)

1504 While shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica, Christopher Columbus successfully

predicted a lunar eclipse for the natives, using the ephemeris of the German astronomer
Regiomontanus.

1531 Work of Johannes Stffler is published posthumously at Tbingen, extending the

ephemeris of Regiomontanus through 1551.

1551 the Prutenic Tables of Erasmus Reinhold were published, based on Copernicus's
theories.

1554 Johannes Stadius published Ephemerides novae et auctae, the first major
ephemeris computed according to Copernicus' heliocentric model, using parameters
derived from the Prutenic Tables. Although the Copernican model provided an elegant
solution to the problem of computing apparent planetary positions (it avoided the need
for the equant and better explained the apparent retrograde motion of planets), it still
relied on the use of epicycles, leading to some inaccuracies - for example, periodic errors
in the position of Mercury of up to ten degrees. One of the users of Stadius's tables is
Tycho Brahe.

1627 the Rudolphine Tables of Johannes Kepler based on elliptical planetary motion
became the new standard.

1679 La Connaissance des Temps ou calendrier et phmrides du lever & coucher

du Soleil, de la Lune & des autres plantes, first published by Jean Picard.

1975 Owen Gingerich, using modern planetary theory and digital computers,
calculates the actual positions of the planets in the 16th Century and graphs the errors in
the planetary positions predicted by the ephemerides of Stffler, Stadius and others.
According to Gingerich, the error patterns "are as distinctive as fingerprints and reflect
the characteristics of the underlying tables. That is, the error patterns for Stffler are
different from those of Stadius, but the error patterns of Stadius closely resemble those of
Maestlin, Magini, Origanus, and others who followed the Copernican parameters."[5]