ASTRONOMICAL

ASTRONOMICAL, something that relates to Astronomy. See ASTRONOMY.
Astronomical Observations. See CÆLESTIAL OBSERVATIONS.



The Astronomical Observations of the ancients, among which those of Hipparchus make a principal figure, are preserved by Ptolemy in his Almagest. See ALMAGEST.
In the year 880, Albategnius, a Saracen, applied himself to the making of observations: In 1457, Regiomontanus undertook the province at Nuremberg; and his disciples, F. Wermerus and Bernhard Walther, continued the same from 1475 to 1504.
Their observations were published together in 1544.
In 1509, Copernicus, and after him the Landgrave of Hesse, with his assistants Rothmann and Byrgius, observed; and after them Tycho Brahe, at Uranibourg, from 1582 to 1601.
All the observations hitherto rehearsed, together with Tycho’s apparatus of instruments, are contained in the Historia Celestis, published in 1672, by order of Emperor Leopold.
Soon after, Hevelius, with a still more magnificent and better-contrived Apparatus of Instruments, described in his Machina Celestis, began a course of observations.
It is objected to him that he only used plain sights, and could never be brought to take the advantage of telescopic ones; which occasioned Dr. Hooke to write Animadversions on Hevelius’s Instruments, printed in 1674 wherein he despises them on account of their inaccuracy: But Dr. Halley, who at the instance of the Royal Society went over to Danzig in the year 1679, to inspect his instruments; approved of their justness, as well as of the observations made with them.
Ferdinand Horrox and William Crabtree, two of our own countrymen, are famous for their observations from the years 1635 to 1645.
They were followed by Flamsteed, Cassini the father and son, Halley, de la Hire, Roemer, and Kirch.
See further under the articles OBSERVATORY, CATALOGUE, etc.
See CELESTIAL OBSERVATIONS.
ASTRONOMICAL Tables, See ASTRONOMICAL TABLE.
ASTRONOMICAL Quadrant, See ASTRONOMICAL QUADRANT.
ASTRONOMICAL Telescope, See ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPE.
ASTRONOMICAL Calendar, See ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR.
ASTRONOMICAL Hours, See ASTRONOMICAL HOURS.
ASTRONOMICAL Month, See ASTRONOMICAL MONTH.
ASTRONOMICAL Year, See ASTRONOMICAL YEAR.
ASTRONOMICAL Characters, etc., See ASTRONOMICAL CHARACTERS, etc.
ASTRONOMICAL Place, of a Star or Planet, is its Longitude, or Place in the Ecliptic reckoned from the beginning of Aries, Consequentially, or according to the natural order of the Signs.
See PLACE, LONGITUDE, etc.
ASTRONOMICAL Time. See ASTRONOMICAL TIME.

ASTRONOMICAL