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Astronomical Images : Lines and motions of the Sun

Peter Apian

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This Venetian edition of Peuerbach's <i>Theoricae novae </i>was copied from Apian's 1528 edition, printed in Ingolstadt. Subsequently, the work went through several further editions. Apian's edition added new woodcuts as well as notations to some of those from earlier editions. Some errors in the woodcuts in the 1528 edition were repeated in this Venetian edition of 1537. The woodcut on the left-hand page shows how the centre of the Sun moves uniformly about the centre of the eccentric (C) but not uniformly around the centre of the World (the point below C, unmarked). The woodcut on the right-hand page shows the apogee (<i>aux</i>) of the Sun at A, as defined as the point of the circumference of the eccentric that is most distant from the centre of the World (D). The perigee (<i>oppositum augis</i>) is defined as the least distant point, at B. The line passing through the centre of the World, the centre of the eccentric, and the points of the apogee and perigee (ACDB) is called line of the apogee (<i>linea augis</i>), or apsidal line in modern parlance. The line perpendicular to this and passing through D, the centre of the World, is the line of mean longitude (<i>linea mediae longitudinis</i>), FDE: F and E mark the mean longitudes of the Sun.</p>


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