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Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Νέος Διόνυσος, romanized: Ptolemaios Neos Dionysos, lit. 'Ptolemy the new Dionysus ' c. 117 – 51 BC) [ a ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] was a king of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt who ruled from 80 to 58 BC and then again from 55 BC until his death in 51 BC.
Ptolemy explains Hipparchus' discovery of the precession of the equinoxes and begins explaining the theory of epicycles. Books IV and V cover the motion of the Moon, lunar parallax, the motion of the lunar apogee, and the sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon relative to the Earth. Book VI covers solar and lunar eclipses.
Book 3 provides a theory of the sun. Book 4 provides an equivalent treatment for the moon. Book 5 deals with the new complications that arise from applying Ptolemy's theory to the moon, as opposed to the simpler case of the sun. Book 6 combines the theory of the sun and the moon to produce a theory that predicts eclipses.
Ptolemy emphasised that the epicycle motion does not apply to the Sun. His main contribution to the model was the equant points. He also re-arranged the heavenly spheres in a different order than Plato did (from Earth outward): Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and fixed stars, following a long astrological tradition and the ...
In Greek antiquity the ideas of celestial spheres and rings first appeared in the cosmology of Anaximander in the early 6th century BC. [7] In his cosmology both the Sun and Moon are circular open vents in tubular rings of fire enclosed in tubes of condensed air; these rings constitute the rims of rotating chariot-like wheels pivoting on the Earth at their centre.
Epicyclic theory, in part, sought to explain this behavior. The inferior planets were always observed to be near the Sun, appearing only shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset. Their apparent retrograde motion occurs during the transition between evening star into morning star, as they pass between the Earth and the Sun.
Al-Juzjani even proposed a solution to the problem. In al-Andalus, the anonymous work al-Istidrak ala Batlamyus (meaning "Recapitulation regarding Ptolemy"), included a list of objections to the Ptolemic astronomy. One of the most important works in the period was Al-Shukuk ala Batlamyus ("Doubts on Ptolemy"). In this, the author summed up the ...
De revolutionibus is divided into six "books" (sections or parts), following closely the layout of Ptolemy's Almagest which it updated and replaced: [6] Book I chapters 1–11 are a general vision of the heliocentric theory, and a summarized exposition of his cosmology. The world (heavens) is spherical, as is the Earth, and the land and water ...