Claudius Ptolemy lived in Alexandria in 150 AD. This great scientist of antiquity was diversified and had a great influence on the development of many sciences. His most famous works that have survived to this day:
1. Astronomy: Ptolemy's Almagest is one of the most important works in ancient astronomy. Interesting fact, he described the geocentric model of the universe. The movement of the Sun, Moon and planets around the Earth is described. It also contains a catalog of stars with their luminosities on a logarithmic scale. The work was published in 13 volumes.

2. Geography: Ptolemy described the world geography at that time in his book called Geography. The maps given by Ptolemy covered 180 degrees of longitude from the Canary Islands to China, and 80 degrees of latitude from the Arctic to the East Indies.

3. Astrology: Ptolemy's treatise on astrology is known as the Tetrobible. The book greatly influenced the practical development of astrology. Ptolemy abandoned methods that had no logical basis and also believed that astrology was not an absolutely reliable science. There were four books in this treatise.

2nd version:

Neither the place nor the time of the birth of Ptolemy, an astronomer, who for many centuries enjoyed such respect that many admirers called him divine, is unknown. All that can be considered true is that he lived under Hadrian and Antoninus, became famous in 130 AD, and died after March 22, 165 AD.

The details of his biography are also unknown, but there are interesting facts. Some writers, based on the similarity of names, argued that he belonged to the royal family of the Ptolemies, but hid the celebrity of his origin, wanted to become famous for his learning and therefore spent his whole life contemplating the sky, observing it in one of the departments of the Egyptian temple in Kanop. Ptolemy modestly called his main work "Mathematical Collection or Syntax". Arabic translators turned it into a "great creation" and this name (Almagest) remained with him forever.

The Almagest enjoyed such great respect in the East that the victorious caliphs, making peace with the Byzantine emperors, demanded lists of Ptolemaic creations.

In the Almagest, Ptolemy clearly set out his system of the world, with many questions related to it, it also contains descriptions of projectiles that Ptolemy considered necessary for accurate observations.

If an astronomer now wants to study the Almagest in every detail, not only for historical knowledge alone, but also to extract data from it for his research, then the glory of Ptolemy will seem doubtful to him. Kepler, seeing how difficult it was to reconcile Ptolemy's conclusions with the latest observations, did not want to encroach on the fame of the Alexandrian astronomer and suggested that significant changes had taken place in the sky in the course of fifteen centuries. But Gley, Lemonnier, Lalande, and Delambre were not so lenient: they accused Ptolemy of falsifying the ancient observations of Hipparchus, of appropriating some of them, and of hiding those that did not agree with his theory. From this disputes arose between first-class scientists, which ended in the fact that the ancient glory of Ptolemy was greatly diminished and the primacy was given to the old Hipparchus. Other writings of Ptolemy have come down to us only in Arabic translations. Of these, we will mention here only his "optics", the Latin translations of which are kept in the Parisian library and, it seems, in one library in Italy. This book contains a table of the refractions of light during the transition from air to water and glass, therefore Ptolemy's optics is the only work from which it is clear that the ancient Greeks were engaged in physical experiments. Here we find the exact concepts of the refraction of light in the atmosphere: the magnitude of the refraction is not correct, but Ptolemy knew correctly that the refraction of light increases from the zenith to the horizon, and at the zenith the light does not change its direction.

3rd version:

Ptolemy Claudius (c. 90 - c. 168), ancient Greek astronomer, geographer, mathematician. The author of the treatise "Guide to Geography" in 8 books, in which he defined science, considered its subject and methods, significantly supplemented and corrected the ideas about the Earth that existed before him, proposed new cartographic projections, laid the foundations of regional studies, and also listed the o.k. 8000 cities and localities with their geographical coordinates. The treatise was accompanied by one general and 26 special maps of the earth's surface. Found in the Middle Ages, for a long time served as the main. source of geographic information. Other fundamental Ptolemy's work – « The Great Mathematical Construction of Astronomy in 13 Books, or Almagest. It substantiates the geocentric system of the world. About the life of Ptolemy very little is known. It is believed that he was born in Ptolemand of Egypt and spent most of his life in Alexandria, where he studied manuscripts in the famous library.

Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. A.P. Gorkina. 2006.

Ptolemy Claudius (in Latin Claudius Ptolemaeus) (the heyday of 127-148), the famous astronomer and geographer of antiquity, through whose efforts the geocentric system of the universe (often referred to as Ptolemaic) acquired its final form. Nothing is known about the origin, place and dates of Ptolemy's birth and death. Dates 127–148 are derived from Ptolemy's observations in and around Alexandria. His star catalog, which is part of the astronomical work Almagest, is dated 137. All others information about the life of Ptolemy come from later sources and are rather dubious. He is said to have been alive during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) and died at the age of 79. From this we can conclude that he was born at the end of the 1st century. The most famous works of Ptolemy are Almagest and Geography, which have become the highest achievement of ancient science in the field of astronomy and geography. The works of Ptolemy were considered so perfect that they dominated science for 1400 years. During this time, almost no serious amendments were made to Geography, and all the achievements of Arab astronomers were essentially reduced to only minor improvements in the Almagest. Although Ptolemy was the most revered authority in all ancient science, it is impossible to call him a brilliant mathematician, astronomer or geographer. His gift was the ability to bring together the results of the research of his predecessors, use them to refine his own observations and present everything together as a logical and complete system, presented in a clear and polished form. The excellent educational and reference works created by him made it possible to maintain a fairly high level of knowledge in the relevant subjects. It can be said that the modern era of scientific research in these areas began with the overthrow of the authority of the Almagest and Geography.

Almagest. The title is a combination of the Arabic definite article and the Greek word "megiste", which means "the greatest" (it means "syntax" - a system, since the original title of the work - Math syntax, i.e. Mathematical system). This work crowned the centuries-old efforts of Greek astronomers to explain the complex movement of the stars. It consists of 13 books, which not only describe, but also analyze the entire body of astronomical knowledge of that time. See also astronomy and astrophysics.
Books I and II of the Almagest serve as an introduction, where the main astronomical assumptions of Ptolemy and his mathematical methods are described. He presents his evidence for the sphericity of the earth and sky, as well as the central position of the earth in the universe. Ptolemy believes that the Earth is motionless, and the sky makes a daily rotation around the celestial axis. Book I has a table of chords for arcs subtending angles from 1/2 to 180 degrees in 1/2° increments, the equivalent of a sine table for half the angles. The idea of ​​the table is borrowed from a lost work by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus (c. 190 - after 126 BC); it became the starting point for the further development of trigonometry. Book II contains such methods of mathematical geography as determining the longest day of the year for a point at a given latitude and determining the latitudes ("climates") in the habitable belts of the Earth from data on the length of the longest day in these belts.
Books III and IV discuss the motion of the sun and moon. Ptolemy adopts the theory of Hipparchus to explain the anomalies of solar motion (caused in reality by the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit) using the epicycle and eccentric hypothesis. Ptolemy's theory of the revolution of the moon is much more complicated. He puts forward the assumption that the Moon moves along an epicycle, the center of which moves from west to east along an eccentric deferent. In turn, the center of the deferent revolves around the Earth from east to west, and this entire mechanism lies in the plane of the visible motion of the Moon. For an observer on Earth, the opposite movements of the center of the epicycle and the deferent cancel each other out with respect to the line connecting the Earth and the Sun. Thus, the epicycle is at the apogee of the eccentric at the moments of the new moon and full moon, and at the perigee - during the first and last quarters. This scheme successfully overcame the main drawback of Hipparchus' theory of the revolution of the Moon and took into account the periodic "wiggle" of the lunar apogee, later called evection, for which Ptolemy got an almost correct value.
Various topics are discussed in Book V: the construction of the theory of the revolution of the Moon continues, the design of the astrolabe is described, the sizes of the solar, lunar and earth's shadows are estimated, the diameters of the Sun, Moon and Earth, as well as the distance to the Sun. Book VI is devoted to solar and lunar eclipses. Books VII and VIII describe the stars by constellation. The latitude and longitude of each star is given in degrees and minutes, and magnitudes are given in the range from 1 to 6. It is not entirely clear how much this catalog was the fruit of Ptolemy's own observations, and how much was borrowed from Hipparchus, given the precession over the past three centuries. It also discusses the precession of the equinox point, the structure of the Milky Way and the design of the celestial globe.
Books IX-XIII are devoted to the motion of the planets, a problem that Hipparchus left without consideration. Book IX considers the order of the planets (their relative distances from the Earth), their periods of revolution; here the author proceeds to the theory of the revolution of Mercury. X book is dedicated to Venus and Mars, and XI - to Jupiter and Saturn. Book XII discusses the standing and retrograde motion of each of the planets, as well as the maximum elongations of Mercury and Venus. Ptolemy's basic scheme represents Venus and the three superior planets as bodies moving from west to east along epicycles whose centers move in the same direction along eccentric deferents. It is assumed that the center of the epicycle moves with a constant angular velocity not around the center of its deferent, but around a point lying on a straight line connecting the Earth with the center of the deferent and twice the distance from the Earth between it and the center of the deferent. The epicycles and deferents are inclined to the ecliptic at different angles. The motion pattern of Mercury is even more complicated.

Geography. In its field of knowledge, Ptolemy's Geography occupied the same place as the Almagest in astronomy. It was believed that this work contains a complete exposition of the subject and is practically infallible, so that until the Renaissance, theoretical geography slavishly followed it. However, as a scientific treatise, Geography is undoubtedly inferior to the Almagest. Although the Almagest is imperfect in the sense of astronomy, it is interesting from the point of view of mathematics. In Geography, however, achievements in theory coexist with serious omissions in their application. Ptolemy begins with a clear presentation of the methods of cartography - determining the astronomical latitude and longitude of a place and methods for depicting spherical surfaces on a plane. Then he moves on to the main part of his treatise, built on the approximate calculations of navigators and explorers. Although Ptolemy presents the subject of his research in mathematical form, and the work gives an impressive list of more than 8000 place names - cities, islands, mountains, estuaries, etc., it would be wrong to think that this work is a scientific study. Precisely because the theoretical aspects of cartography are presented in this book quite satisfactorily even for a modern elementary textbook, we can be sure that Ptolemy knew that in his time the true coordinates of places had not yet been accurately determined.
In Geography book I, Ptolemy discusses the reliability of determining the relative positions of points on the earth by astronomical methods and by measuring distances on the surface and estimates of the paths traveled by travelers. He admits that astronomical methods are more reliable, but points out that for most places there is no data other than traveller's numbers. Ptolemy considers the most reliable mutual control of terrestrial and astronomical methods. He then gives clear instructions for constructing a map of the world on a sphere (much like a modern globe) as well as on a flat surface using conic projection or improved spherical projection. The remaining seven books consist almost entirely of a list of the names of various places and their geographic coordinates.
Since the vast majority of the data was obtained by travelers (c. 120 AD they were compiled by Ptolemy's predecessor Marinus of Tyre), Ptolemy's atlas contains many errors. The almost correct value of the earth's circumference calculated by Eratosthenes was underestimated by Posidonius by more than a quarter, and this underestimated value was used by Ptolemy. Prime meridian at Ptolemy passes through the Canary Islands. Due to the exaggerated size of Asia by travelers, it turned out that the world known at that time stretched for more than 180 ° (actually 130 °). On the 180th meridian of his chart is China, a gigantic landmass stretching from the top of the chart to the equator. From this it followed that the unknown part of the Asian continent stretched even further, to where the Pacific Ocean is now depicted. Such was Ptolemy's classic view, preserved for centuries, of the Earth as a sphere reduced by a quarter compared to its actual size and covered with land, occupying 2/3 of the Northern Hemisphere. It was it that inspired Christopher Columbus with the confidence that India must be reached by moving in a westerly direction. Ptolemy accompanied his work with an atlas of 27 maps: 10 regional maps of Europe, 4 maps of Africa, 12 maps of Asia and a summary map of the entire world known by that time. The book gained such authority that even a century after the travels of Christopher Columbus and Magellan, which subverted the basic provisions of Geography, there were still maps in the style of Ptolemy. Some of his erroneous ideas were persistently repeated on the maps of the 17th and 18th centuries, and as for inner Africa, his map was printed even in the 19th century.

Other jobs. Ptolemy's versatility and his marvelous gift for clear and precise presentation appeared in other treatises, such as those on optics and music. The work on optics has survived only in a Latin translation from Arabic - also a translation from a lost Greek original. It consisted of five books, of which Book I and the end of Book V are lost. Books III and IV deal with the reflection of light. Ptolemy resorted to measurements to prove that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Book V is about the refraction of light. It describes experiments on refraction in water and glass at various angles of incidence and an attempt is made to apply these results in astronomy to estimate the degree of refraction of light coming from a star through the earth's atmosphere. Ptolemy's treatise is the most complete work on mirrors and optics that has survived from ancient times.
Ptolemy's harmonica earned a reputation as the most scientific and well-organized treatise on the theory of musical modes that has survived in Greek. This is the second most important, after the works of Aristoxenus (second half of the 4th century BC), a treatise on ancient music. However, Ptolemy's writing has a more practical focus. Among other works of Ptolemy is a treatise on astrology Apotelesmatika in four books, usually called Tetrabiblos. This work was as authoritative in its field as the Almagest in its own.

IMPACT OF THE PTOLEMAIC THEORY
The works of Ptolemy reigned supreme in science for almost 1400 years, but his influence on social, political, moral and theological views proved to be even longer and continued until the revolution of the 18th century. Ptolemy's theory of an anthropocentric Earth located in a geocentric universe was widely disseminated, especially through medieval encyclopedias. The reconciliation of Christian doctrine with the ancient heritage by Albertus Magnus (c. 1193–1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) made the teachings of the ancients acceptable and useful to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The study of the Universe led to a revision of the relationship of man with the outside world. The order of the planets established by Ptolemy and his assumption about the impact of each of them on a certain group of people was interpreted by the church as part of the great hierarchy, or chain, of being. The highest link in this chain was God and the angels, followed by man, woman, animals, plants, and finally minerals. This teaching, together with the story from the Book of Genesis about the creation of the world in 6 days, was the main background of all European poetry and prose from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. It was believed that the great chain of being has a divine origin and determines the division of feudal society into three estates - the nobility, the clergy and the third estate, each of which plays its role in the life of society. This view was so firmly rooted in society that Galileo, who defended the heliocentric theory of Copernicus, was brought before the Inquisition in Rome in 1616 and forced to renounce his views.
Evidence of Ptolemy's influence on literature is innumerable. Some authors directly point to Ptolemy as the highest authority. Others, like Dante and Milton, make the Ptolemaic universe the basis for building their own worlds. In the works of Chaucer there are references to the Almagest and there are references to the works of Ptolemy.
The concept of cosmic order permeates all of E. Spencer's work, for him all beings are "lined up in the right row." The authors of the Elizabethan era spoke about the need for order and multi-level in the chain of being and about the influence of stars on life as an instrument of divine Providence. Shakespeare's characters live in the world of Ptolemy. In the 8th song of Milton's Paradise Lost, Adam expresses doubts about the Ptolemaic system, and the archangel Raphael, dissuading him, speaks not so much of its truth, but of greater reasonableness and suitability for human existence in comparison with the heliocentric. Back in the 18th century. Pope's Experience about a person exclaims: “O shining chain of being!”, Which is indispensable for the Universe, because otherwise “Planets with the Sun will be drawn at random”, and a person will be immersed in “delusion without end.”

LITERATURE
Bronshten V.A. Claudius Ptolemy. M., 1988
Claudius Ptolemy. Almagest. M., 1998

Encyclopedia Around the World. 2008.

It was believed that Hyperborea was located behind the Riphean mountains, this is how these Riphean mountains were approximately represented, it is interesting that the Baltic Sea is called the Sarmatian Ocean.

Claudius Ptolemy and his forgotten maps of the North

V. N. Tatishchev highly appreciated the merits of the famous geographer, astronomer, geometer and physicist of antiquity Claudius Ptolemy (circa 90–168), and from his books he singled out the fundamental work "Guide to Geography" 74:

"Claudius Ptolemy is the first in respectable geographers, for although before his very many geographical descriptors were, as Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny are put above, and they have a great number of writers mentioned, of which there are very few books left to us, but this therefore can be honored as the first that he laid down the first system of the world."

Tatishchev V.N. History of Russia since ancient times. T. 1.

An important supplement to his "Guide to Geography" were the so-called land maps, for the first time oriented north up. It is known that before Ptolemy, most maps were oriented astride to the south, less often to the east.

The fate of this work is interesting. Shortly after its appearance, this work of Ptolemy was undeservedly forgotten for almost thirteen centuries, or rather, until the Renaissance. Only in 1409 did Manuel Chrysopor translate it into Latin. Since that time, the "Guide to Geography" has been reprinted dozens of times, and because of the huge number of maps (more than 60), the name of Ptolemy became a household name: all collections of maps that we call atlases were called Ptolemy in the Middle Ages.

Of course, the 3rd book is of particular interest to us, where Ptolemy gives a description of Sarmatia, which he has between the rivers Vistula (Vistula) and Ra (Volga), at the same time dividing it into European and Asian parts. Above Sarmatia, he points out, there are lands unknown to him, so we will not find descriptions of them in the book. According to V.N. Tatishchev, under an unknown land it is necessary " understand Siberia, Herodotus calls Iperborea"75. Following Tatishchev, we could add: ... and the North of modern Europe.

Speaking about the population of Sarmatia, Ptolemy, like Tacitus, points to the Finns, referring them not to the main ones, such as the Wends (it is believed that these are the ancestors of the Slavs), roksolany, yazigi and Scythian-Alans, but to " less important tribes" 76 .

"The less significant tribes inhabiting Sarmatia are as follows: near the Vistula River, below the Wends - Gifons (Gitons), then Finns; further Sulans (Bulans), below them - Frugdions, then Avarins (Obarins) near the sources of the Vistula River."

Along the coast of the Venedsky Gulf (the southern part of the Baltic Sea), above or to the north of all, according to Ptolemy, there lived tribes not yet known to us - carbons, and to the east of them - Karests (future Karelians?) and Sals. Just below them lived the already mentioned gelons, melanchlens and unfamiliar to us boruski , common to the very Repey mountains 77 .

"Then the coast of the ocean near the Gulf of Veneda is occupied by the Velts, above their Ossia, then the most northern - Carboniferous, to the east of them - Karests and Sals (below these - Gelons, Hippods and Melanchlens); below them - Agathyrs, then Aorses and Pagirites; below them - Savars and Boruski to the Riphean Mountains".

Ptolemy K. Guide to geography.

As for the territory of Sarmatia, bordering on the unknown northern land, it belongs, Ptolemy points out, Sarmatians - Hyperboreans 78 .

Surprisingly, for some reason Ptolemy ignored Scandinavia and the Svions, but on the other hand, three small islands appear on his map near the Kimvrian (now Jutland) Peninsula and one larger island - they were all called Scandia.

Among the ancient Hellenes, Claudius Ptolemy was an outstanding personality. Interesting facts from the life of this scientist testify to his great mind and abilities in the most diverse sciences. Astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, geographer. In addition to these sciences, he studied music, studied vision and dealt with demographic issues.

Who is Claudius Ptolemy?

Almost nothing is known about the life of this ancient Greek scientist. His biography remains a mystery to historians. So far, no sources have been found that mention Ptolemy, interesting facts from the life of this person have been lost.

The place and date of his birth, what family he belonged to, whether he was married, whether he had children - nothing is known about this. We only know that he lived from about the 90s to 170 AD, became famous after 130 AD, was a Roman citizen, lived for a long time in Alexandria (from 127 to 151 AD), where was engaged

A lot of controversy among scientists raises the question of what kind Ptolemy belonged to. Interesting facts from the life of the scientist speak in favor of the fact that he was a descendant of the royal family of Ptolemies. However, this version does not have sufficient evidence.

Works of a scientist that have survived to this day

Many scientific works of this ancient Greek have come down to our time. They have become for historians the main sources of study of his life.

"The Great Assembly" or "Almagest" is the main work of the scientist. This monumental work of 13 books can rightly be called an encyclopedia of ancient astronomy. It also has chapters on mathematics, namely trigonometry.

"Optics" - 5 books, on the pages of which the theory about the nature of vision, about the refraction of rays and visual deceptions, about the properties of light, about flat and convex mirrors is stated. The laws of reflection are also described there.

"Teaching about harmony" - work in 3 books. Unfortunately, the original has not survived to this day. We can only get acquainted with an abridged Arabic translation, from which the "Harmonica" was later translated into Latin.

"Tetrabook" - a work on demography, which outlines the observations of Ptalomeus on life expectancy, a division of age categories is given.

"Hand-tables" - a chronology of the reign of the Roman emperors, Macedonian, Persian, Babylonian and Assyrian kings from 747 BC. until the life of Claudius himself. This work has become very important for historians. The accuracy of her data is indirectly confirmed by other sources.

"Tetrabiblos" - a treatise devoted to astrology, describes the movement of celestial bodies, their influence on the weather and on man.

"Geography" - a set of geographical information of antiquity in 8 books.

Lost Works

Ptolemy was a great scientist. Interesting facts from his books became the main source of astronomical knowledge up to Copernicus. Unfortunately, some of his works have been lost.

Geometry - at least 2 works were written in this area, traces of which could not be found.

Works on mechanics also existed. According to the Byzantine encyclopedia of the 10th century, Ptolemy is the author of 3 books from this field of science. None of them have survived to our time.

Claudius Ptolemy: interesting facts from life

The scientist compiled a table of chords, it was he who first used the division of a degree into minutes and seconds.

The laws he described are very close to the modern conclusions of scientists.

Claudius Ptolemy - the author of many reference books, which was new in those days. He summarized the works of Hipparchus, the greatest astronomer of antiquity, compiled a star catalog based on his observations. His works on geography can also be represented as a certain reference book, in which he summarized all the knowledge available at that time.

It was Ptolemy who invented the astrolabon, which became the prototype of the ancient astrolabe, an instrument for measuring latitude.

Other interesting facts about Ptolemy - he gives instructions for the first time on how to draw a world map on a sphere. Without a doubt, his work became the basis for the creation of the globe.

Many modern historians emphasize that Ptolemy can hardly be called a scientist. Of course, he made several important discoveries of his own, but most of his works are a clear and competent presentation of the discoveries and observations of other scientists. He did a titanic job, collecting all the data together, analyzing and making his own corrections. Ptolemy himself never put his authorship under his writings.

Great mind of antiquity, tireless scientist and researcher. We present interesting facts about Ptolemy. M place, as well as the time of the birth of Ptolemy dtruly unknown.

From various sources, it is possible to learn only what Ptolemy lived during the reign of Antonina and Hadrian that fame came to him in 129 AD, and chose Alexandria as the place of residence and his scientific activity.

He died in 165 AD.

An interesting fact is that based on historical documents, comparison and analysis of names, it can be concluded that Ptolemy belonged to the royal family of Ptolemies, but he himself very carefully concealed this. Apparently he wanted to be known as an outstanding scientist. And it should be noted that he succeeded.

In the field of astronomy, Ptolemy made many observations and combined all the records in thirteen books - works on astronomy. Ptolemy's Almagest is a very interesting model of the universe with the movement of celestial bodies around the Earth, changes in the position of the Moon and the Sun.

In a book on the study of geography, Ptolemy describes world geography.

The cartographic schemes presented by Ptolemy in the book were depicted by the author and described a vast territory from the Canary Islands to Great China, from the Arctic to the East Indies.

Ptolemy's tetrabible was published in 4 treatises. However, Ptolemy himself considered this science to be absolutely unreliable.

There is even such a case when Lemonnier, Gley, Delambre and Lalande charged Ptolemy with misappropriation and forgery of the ancient discoveries of Hipparchus.

Many writings of Ptolemy have survived to our time, which are reflected in modern science. For example, his research on the refraction of a light beam formed the basis for the study and development of modern optics, physical experiments, and so on. All studies of Ptolemy were supported by conclusions and precise concepts.

It is also striking that how far these studies of Ptolemy would be in time and no matter how much criticism they were subjected to, no matter how interesting and contradictory facts were found in the biography of this scientist, his scientific works served as the basis for many outstanding discoveries, creations and developments, come down to our times.

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Interesting facts about scientists

It is thanks to the dedication and dedication of scientists that many achievements are possible today, without which it is difficult to imagine our life. Their high personal qualities become a common example of how, in fact, a person should serve society. The whole life of these wonderful people, their difficult fates, disputes with circumstances, shows their faith in the power of science and the benefit their work can bring to humanity as a whole. Each of these scientists is a unique personality, which is associated with many interesting and sometimes shocking facts that open the veil over such an interesting area as science.

Part 1. "The fall of the ancient world."

In the posts of this blog, a large amount of "ancient" material known to us was considered: starry celestial atlases and geographical maps. It can be said unequivocally that "in stock" are mainly those materials on which the Scaligerian history and modern astronomy and geography are based. Almost everything that contradicts officialdom has been "cleaned and blotted out" from the history of the evolution of our planet.

However, in the works of this blog, the facts of many inconsistencies in these "ancient" stellar, geographical maps, tables of observations of celestial events, the very scientific world history were revealed and clearly presented.

Let's remember that almost all the information about the knowledge of the "ancient" Greeks about the stars is known today from two works that have come down to us: " Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus", written Hipparchus and " Almagest» Ptolemy.

It is believed that astronomy began to take shape in an exact science thanks to the work of the "ancient" Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who allegedly lived around 185-125 BC.

The Scaligerian version in the 18th century, referring the Almagest to around the 2nd century AD, was initially considered undeniable. However, in the 19th century, after a more thorough analysis of the longitudes of the stars in the Almagest, it was noticed that, in terms of precession, these longitudes are more consistent with the era of the 2nd century BC, that is, the era of Hipparchus. How were these statements calculated and verified? It turns out, on the basis of the so-called precession of the earth's axis!

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• April 25th, 2019 01:55 am

Part 9

Where was the Dragon looking?

Continuation

At the turn of the epochs New sky atlas.

Christian Friedrich Goldbach ( Christian Friedrich Goldbach, 1763 - 1811) - German astronomer and cartographer ... In 1804, Goldbach in Moscow became the first ordinary professor of astronomy at Moscow University.

V 1799 Christian Goldbach published in Weimar the "New Sky Atlas" (Neuster Himmels Atlas), with fairly accurate copies of the Flamsteed constellations. Its feature was not only a negative (white on black) image: a similar technique was used by Semler in the atlas of 1731. Goldbach performed each card in two versions:

a) only stars (without coordinate grid and figures) and

b) traditionally - with superimposed images of constellations.

Fig 1. 1799 Goldbach_W_01. North hemisphere.

This planisphere does not contain an equatorial coordinate grid, although the planisphere itself is made along the equatorial boundary.
In general, the Maps - planispheres (previously considered) of Jamison of 1822, Bode of 1782-1805 and Goldbach of 1799 are almost identical.

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• February 24th, 2019 08:29 am

Part 5. Rotation of the Sun.

We all know for sure, and not only from textbooks on astronomy, we were long and persistently inspired that the Earth revolves around the Sun in a strictly defined orbit. Based on this, natural questions arise regarding the Sun itself: does it rotate? And if so, around what? Does the sun rotate on its axis?
How does official science answer these questions?

Rice 1. Cellarius_Harmonia_Macrocosmica-Tychonis_Brahe_Calculus

About the concept The sun» On Wikipedia, you can read a lot: about its structure, atmosphere, magnetic fields, about the study of the sun and its eclipses, about its significance in religion and the occult, about its twins, and even about solar neutrinos. What else do you need? But how does it rotate and does it rotate at all?
If you type “Sun Rotation” into a search engine, Wikipedia for some reason precipitates, talks about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (well, stupid “I”), and invites me to create such a topic myself ...

Yet the Sun rotates around its axis, scientists come to this conclusion.

Interesting, how are studies of the rotation of the star carried out?
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• January 15th, 2018 03:25 am

Part 4
Star catalog dates.
A brief digression into the history of astronomy in the light of HX.

What catalogs of stars do we know?

It is considered that Almagest star catalog- this is the oldest of the detailed astronomical works that have come down to us.
The Scaligerian dating of the Almagest is approximately the 2nd century AD.
According to the same dating - earlier than the 10th century AD. no other star catalogs other than the Almagest catalog are known.

Only in the 10th century, the first medieval catalog of stars was created by the Arab astronomer Abdul-al-Raman ben Omar ben-Muhammed ben-Sala Abdul-Husayn al-Sufi (full name) in Baghdad, allegedly in 903-986.
However, upon closer examination, it turns out that this is the same Almagest catalogue. But if in the lists and editions of the Almagest that have come down to us, the star catalog is given by precession, as a rule, by about 100 AD, then Al Sufi catalog- the same catalog, but given by precession to the 10th century AD. This fact is well known to astronomers. Bringing the catalog to an arbitrary desired historical epoch was done using the simplest arithmetic operation - by adding a certain constant value to the longitudes of all the stars, which is described in detail in the Almagest itself.

The next, according to the chronology of Scaliger-Petavius, is considered Ulugbek's catalog(allegedly 1394-1449 AD, Samarkand).

All three of these catalogs are not very accurate. , since the coordinates of the stars are indicated in them on a scale with a step of about 10 arc minutes.

The next catalog that has come down to us is the famous Tycho Brahe catalog(allegedly 1546-1601), the accuracy of which is already significantly better than the accuracy of the three catalogs listed. Brahe's catalog is considered the pinnacle of craftsmanship achieved with medieval observational techniques and tools.

When was Ptolemy's Almagest written?

"Most of the manuscripts on which our knowledge of Greek science is based are Byzantine copies made 500-1500 years AFTER THE DEATH OF THEIR AUTHORS." (O. Neugebayer "Exact sciences in antiquity")

Ptolemy, together with Hipparchus (allegedly the 2nd century AD), is considered the founder of astronomical science, and his Almagest (Great Creation) is an immortal monument of ancient science.

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• December 6th, 2017 03:25 pm

Part 3
Almagest of Ptolemy. Where is the reference point button?

Information about the knowledge of the "ancient Greeks" about the stars is found today in two works that have come down to us: "Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus", written by Hipparchus allegedly around 135 BC, and "Almagest" by Ptolemy.

« Almagest"(lat. Almagest, from Arabic. الكتاب المجسطي‎, al-kitabu-l-mijisti — « Great Formation". The great mathematical construction on astronomy is presented in 13 books, the total volume of which is 430 pages of a large-format modern edition. This is a classic work that appeared around the year 140 (according to the Scaligerian chronology - CX) and includes the full range of astronomical knowledge of Greece and the Middle East of that time.

The Almagest is believed to have been written by the Alexandrian astronomer, mathematician and geographer Claudius Ptolemy or Ptolemy. Historians attribute his activity to the 2nd century AD. According to historians of astronomy, "History dealt with the personality and works of Ptolemy in a rather strange way. Historians of the era when he lived have no mention of his life and work ... Even the approximate dates of Ptolemy's birth and death are unknown, as are any facts of his biography" .

Ptolemy's star catalog is contained in his 7th and 8th books of the Almagest. There is a so-called canonical edition of the star catalog of the Almagest, made by Peters and Knobel, and two complete editions of the Almagest translated by R.Catesby Taliaferro and Toomer.
The Russian translation of the Almagest first came out of print only in 1998 in a very limited edition of a thousand copies (excerpts will be further from this edition).

In the Scaligerian chronology (CX), it is believed that the Almagest was created during the reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled in 138-161 AD.
It should be noted right away that the very literary style of this book, in places very wordy and flowery, rather speaks of the Renaissance than of ancient times, when paper, parchment, and even more so a book, were precious objects.

From the very beginning of acquaintance with the Almagest, it is noticeable that the work of Ptolemy is dedicated to Sir, that is, the King. For some reason, historians are very surprised about what kind of Tsar we are talking about here. A modern comment goes like this: This name (that is, Sir = King) was quite common in Hellenistic Egypt during the period under consideration. There is no other information about this person. It is not even known whether he studied astronomy."
This book ends remarkably. Here is her epilogue.
"After we have done all this, O Sir, and have dealt with, as I think, almost everything that should be considered in such a work, how much the time that has hitherto only for the sake of scientific benefit, may our present work receive here a fitting and proportionate end" (p. 428).

However, the fact that the Almagest was associated with the name of a certain King is confirmed by the following circumstance. It turns out that in late antiquity and in the Middle Ages, Ptolemy was also credited with royal origin. In addition, the very name Ptolemy or Ptolemy is considered the generic name of the Egyptian kings who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great.
However, according to CX, the Ptolemaic kings left the scene around 30 BC. That is, more than a century before the astronomer Ptolemy. Thus, only CX prevents us from identifying the era of the Ptolemaic kings with the era of the astronomer Ptolemy = Ptolemy. Apparently, in the Middle Ages, when the CX had not yet been invented, the Almagest was attributed precisely to the Ptolemy kings. Rather, not as authors, but as organizers or customers of this fundamental astronomical work. That is why the Almagest was canonized, became an indisputable authority for a long time. Then it becomes clear why the book begins and ends with a dedication to the King = Sir. It was, so to speak, the royal textbook on astronomy.

The question is, when did this all happen?

Almagest contains a detailed presentation of the geocentric system of the world, according to which the Earth rests in the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies revolve around it.

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• November 27th, 2017 05:20 pm

Part 2.
Maps of the "Geography" of Ptolemy.

Since our school years, we remember that the famous work of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus "On the rotations of the celestial spheres" was banned by the Inquisition. In 1616 it was placed on the Roman list of forbidden books. Copernicus created the heliocentric system of the universe and, in fact, rejected the geocentric system, which Claudius Ptolemy adhered to, in favor of predicting the movement of the planets based on the hypothesis of their revolution around the Sun. The works of the heliocentrists were finally excluded from the index of forbidden books only in 1835.

We are used to the fact that Copernicus (rival), whom the Catholic Church, in fact, posthumously declared a heretic, was “good”, and his predecessor Ptolemy, by contrast, appears to be a dense ignoramus and a brake on the progress of science. Meanwhile, a prominent church father and an outstanding fighter against heresies, St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, without hesitation, considered Ptolemy himself and his followers to be heretics because they claimed that it was possible to predict the motion of the planets using mathematical calculations. In his work Panarion, dedicated to exposing 80 heresies, Epiphanius writes:

The successor of Secundus and the named Epiphanes, who adopted from Isidore the Admonition as the basis of their opinions, is Ptolemy, who belongs to the heresy of the same so-called Gnostics and followers of Valentinus with some others, but who also applied something different compared to his teachers. Boasting of his name, and those who trusted him are also called Ptolemy (Πτολεμαῖοι)...

Having defined the main concepts in the previous part, let's return to Claudius Ptolemy's Geography and try to find out how, technically, the information was collected.

The main drawback of the heterogeneous, multilingual translations of Claudius Ptolemy's (Ptolemy) Geography that have come down to us is the absence of really ancient maps illustrating the Geography itself, or their copies. A full-fledged comparison of the translations of "Geography" scientists took up only at the beginning of the 20th century. A comprehensive study of Ptolemy's Geography is the book of Paul Schnabel (Schnabel, 1939). In different editions of his great work, sometimes maps were also inserted (allegedly from the 13th century onwards). The closest to the original maps from Dover Publication Inc, N-Y, E. L. Stevenson (on the 1932 edition) are maps by N. Donnus from the Codex Ebnerianus manuscript, traditionally dated to the second half of the 15th century. This is directly the posting of points from the "Geography", in the conic projection, named after Donnus and used in print publications since the end of the 15th century. In total, there are a little more than 8000 points with the coordinates of settlements, capes, mountains, lakes, estuaries and sources of rivers. Ptolemy.

One of the sheets of the Donnus map (c. 1460) depicting Africa.

Claudius Ptolemy (Hiding, swimming forward, backward
And sometimes they stop.
What if the seventh in their row
Is the Earth a planet?

Claudius Ptolemy(ancient Greek Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖ ος, lat. Claudius Ptolemaeus,).
We know from Wikipedia that this Ptolemy is a late Hellenistic astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, mechanic, optician, music theorist and geographer. He lived and worked in Alexandria of Egypt (allegedly in the period 127-151), where he carried out astronomical observations.
He is the author of the classic antique monograph "Almagest", which was the result of the development of ancient celestial mechanics and contained an almost complete collection of astronomical knowledge of Greece and the Middle East of that time. He left a deep mark in astrology.
There is no mention of his life and work by contemporary authors. In the historical writings of the first centuries of our era, Claudius Ptolemy was sometimes associated with the Ptolemaic dynasty, but modern historians believe this to be an error due to the coincidence of names. The Roman nomen (genus name) Claudius shows that Ptolemy was a Roman citizen, and his ancestors received Roman citizenship, most likely from Emperor Claudius.

Ptolemy's main work was The Great Mathematical Construction of Astronomy in Thirteen Books, which was an encyclopedia of astronomical and mathematical knowledge of the ancient Greek world. On the way from the Greeks to medieval Europe through the Arabs "Megale syntaxis" ("Great Construction") was transformed into Almagest.
Initially, Ptolemy's work was called "Mathematical collection in 13 books" (Old Greek Μαθηματικικης Συντάξεώς βιβλἱ α ιγ). In late antiquity, this work was referred to as the "Greatest Work". When translated into Arabic, the word "greatest" (ancient Greek μεγίστη, megiste) became " al majisti" (Arabic المجسطي‎), which in turn was translated into Latin as " Almagest"(lat. Almagest), which became the common name.

Another important work of Ptolemy, the Manual of Geography in eight books, is a collection of knowledge about the geography of everything known to the ancient peoples of the world. In his treatise, Ptolemy laid the foundations of mathematical geography and cartography. Published the coordinates of eight thousand points from Scandinavia to Egypt and from the Atlantic to Indochina; this is a list of cities and rivers with their geographic longitude and latitude.
It is believed that on the basis of extensive and carefully collected information, Claudius Ptolemy also completed 27 maps of the earth's surface, which have not yet been discovered and may have been lost forever. Ptolemaic maps became known only from later descriptions. (Borisovskaya N.A. Ancient engraved maps and plans. - Moscow: Galaxy, 1992. - 272 p. - P. 7-8.). For all the inaccuracy of this information and maps, compiled mainly from the stories of travelers, they first showed the vastness of the inhabited regions of the Earth and their relationship with each other.

About the ancient "cosmos".
Some school-church misconceptions about the ignorance of the ancient “scientists” about the earthly and heavenly spheres, about the representation of the “ancients”, about the images of the earth and sky on ancient engravings (maps) are well known.
Firstly, there is a widespread misconception that the ancients saw the earth as flat, with three elephants on a turtle floating in the boundless ocean, or in the form of a casket, where holes were drilled in the lid, which are stars. There are frequent references to the publication of such books from the Topography of Kozma Indikoplovst and others. However, there are no substantiated statements about a flat earth, either in the Bible and church books, or on icons and frescoes. On the contrary, in the most ancient paintings and icons, we can see some kind of king or baby Jesus, with a power in his hand. This power is the essence of a globe model with a division into three parts of the world known from time immemorial: Europe, Asia (Asia) and Ethiopia (Africa). The cross above it means that all these are Christian countries.

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