Ancient Astronomy — Daily Schedule Term 3

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See also: Daily Schedule Term 2

Week 8 — Continue Solar Theory

• Preparation for Thursday, Oct. 26 — Read Evans Sections 5.5 to 5.8, pp. 221-235 — As Assignment 8 for Thursday, do Parts 2, 3, and 4 of Evans Exercise 5.8, p. 235 using your birthday in 2023 for the last part
• Thursday, Oct. 26 — We did course evals — I was scribe and I will write up what was on the board — I presented Evans Exercise 5.6 on Solar Eccentricity — We got Hipparchus’s results for e and A to within 1 in the last decimal place — Walker presented Part 1 of Evans Exercise 5.8 and we found the mistake he had been searching for, and was valuable for everybody

Week 9 — Finish Solar Theory — Start the Fixed Stars

• Preparation for Monday, Oct. 30 — Assignment 9 is the completed Venus and Jupiter plotting projects — Finish reading Chapter 5 — For Monday’s presentations we decided that everyone will do all of Evans Exercise 5.10 and in class we will share the presentation of parts of it
• Monday, Oct. 30 — We discussed the magnitude system (which is coming up in Chapter 6) — We cross-checked Pollux and Procyon star phases with Rania’s values — We did Parts 1-5 of Exercise 5.10 — At the end of class, we quickly looked at how the Main Circle sundial corrects for Daylight Savings Time, our longitude being 2° west of the standard Pacific Time meridian of 120°, and the Equation of Time
• Preparation for Thursday, Nov. 2 — Study Evans 6.1 to 6.4 — Add the Pollux-vs-Procyon Star Phase diagrams to your Assignment 7 and turn it back in — ALSO, check your values for your star phases against mine before you hand Assignment 7 back in, and flag any that disagree with me by more than a week
• Thursday, Nov. 2 — Precession — Cause of precession — Law of Sines and Law of Cosines — Parallax — The apparent vs. true position of the Moon — We did Ex. 6.5 in class and got 204° as the longitude of Spica

Week 10 — Finish the Fixed Stars — Observing at the College Observatory — Start Babylonian Planetary Theory

• Monday, Nov. 6 — Meet at 5am — We’ll observe Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon with a 10” telescope
• Wednesday, Nov. 8 — Meet at 7:45pm — Bring a headlamp, there will be no moonlight — We’ll be observing Saturn, and the Andromeda Galaxy, and maybe we will get a sharper view of Jupiter
• Preparation for Thursday, Nov. 9 — Read Evans 6.6 through 7.6, p. 312 — You can just skim 6.9 and 6.10 because the motion called “trepidation” was just a giant misunderstanding
• Thursday, Nov. 9 — We augmented our Venus plots by computing the ecliptic longitude of Venus on Oct. 16 — We reviewed the terminology that Evans introduces with planetary theory — I handed out an improved version of the Spica calculations we did in class on Nov. 2 — Finally, we did Exercise 7.5 (Jupiter’s tropical and synodic period) together in class

Week 11 — Finish Babylonian Planetary Theory — Start Greek Epicyclic Theory

• Preparation for Monday, Nov. 13 — Read Evans through Babylonian System A, p. 328 — As Assignment 10, do Evans Ex. 7.8 p. 316
• Monday, Nov. 13 — We used a high-quality gyroscope to gain some intuition about precession — Mac and Brian presented and gave out handouts on Exercise 5.10, Part 6, the calculation of the Equation of Time — We looked at Babylonian System A
• Preparation for Thursday, Nov. 16 — Read Evans through 7.13, p. 347 — We will do the Babylonian System A’ part of Evans Ex. 7.11, p. 334 together in class, so you don’t need to prepare for it

Week 12 — Ptolemy’s Epicyclic Theory — Construction of Ptolemaic Slats

• Preparation for Monday, Nov. 20 — Evans through 7.18, p. 362 — As Assignment 11, do Evans Exercise 7.16, p. 351, the Ptolemaic Slats Project, Parts 1-5 only — Start by printing the Ptolemaic slats onto 11x17 paper at 100% — Finally, we’ll start Ex. 7.18 together in class, like we did with Ex. 7.11

Week 13 — Ptolemy’s Parameters for each Planet’s Epicycles — Ptolemaic Cosmology — Cosmology through The Middle Ages

• Preparation for Monday, Nov. 27 — Evans 7.19 to 7.22 — As Assignment 12, Finish Evans Ex. 7.18, p. 359, Ptolemy’s longitudes, Parts 1-4 only
• Monday, Nov. 27 — We reviewed the theory in Evans 7.19 — In class, we did Evans Ex. 7.20 Parts 1-4 and sketched how you would do Part 5
• Preparation for Thursday, Nov. 30 — Skip Evans 7.23 and 7.24 and read Evans 7.25 and 7.26 (pp. 384-403) — Prepare presentations
• Thursday, Nov. 30 — Hexi: Review the diagram and theory behind σ+τ=P_M+P_S — Mac: The life and times of Thabit ibn Qurra — Walker: The Errant Predictions of Ptolemy’s lunar theory — Clara: The life and times of Regiomontus — Brian: Compare Tables 7.10 and 7.11 with modern values — Show Wylie Overstreet video, To Scale: The Solar System, the Black Rock Desert scale model

Week 14 — Planetary Equatoria — Copernicus and Heliocentric Cosmology

• Preparation for Monday, Dec. 4 — Read Evans 7.27 to 7.29 — Our last project is Ex. 7.28, a planetary equatorium, do Parts 1-6 before class
• Monday, Dec. 4 — We did most of Parts 7-10 of the equatoria in class — A primer using vectors on the relation between the Sun-centered and Earth-centered viewpoints (Section 7.29)
• Preparation for Thursday, Dec. 7 — Finish the equatorium and do a calculation with it as an extra credit assignment — Re-read Evans 7.29 thinking carefully about reference frames, and read Evans 7.30 — Come prepared to debate the two viewpoints in 7.29 and 7.30: Heliocentric cosmology vs. Earth-centered cosmology
• Thursday, Dec. 7 — — Cosmological Debate: Mac, Clara, and Walker are Earth-centered; Brian, Hexi, and Rania are Sun-centered — Brahe’s argument (using parallax) that the Earth must be still — Copernicus biographical sketch — Scenes from Frombork — Review for final

Week 15 — Final — Kepler’s Laws

• Monday, Dec. 11 — Final
• Preparation for Thursday, Dec. 14 — Evans 7.31, but stop at p. 441, unless you want the additional technical details
• Thursday, Dec. 14 — Sun-centered understanding of retrograde motion — Construction and properties of Ellipses and Kepler’s First Law — Kepler’s Second Law — Eccentricity of Mars — Kepler’s Third Law