D.Y.K? - Ptolemy's Ptake

We've tossed it around a lot... Ptolemy's take on the Earth being
at the center of the surrounding universe, and how his version of
this lasted for nearly 1500 years or more.

Then came the hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners team of Kepler
and Copernicus.

Now aside from Ptolemy's huge mistake and his ability to use
complex mathematics to "prove" his idea...

Did You Know?...

Ptolemy, at least, was not a "Flat-Earther!" Even back as early as
year 140 AD, he believed in and spread the word of a spherical
Earth. He reasoned that the Sun, Moon and stars would rise and
set at different times depending upon where you lived on Earth. If
you lived more toward the Orient, then they would rise and set
earlier than for observers who lived in the West (the Occident).
He also noted the different times recorded for eclipses, especially
of the Moon. People would record an eclipse at a later time if
they lived toward the Orient, and at an earlier time if they lived
further West.

"But Ptolemy," a friend may have pointed out, "this does not
rule out that the Earth may be shaped like a cylinder rather than
a sphere. The cylinder's curved surface could be turned to the
risings and the settings, while the plane bases face the poles of
the universe."

So Ptolemy reasoned also that the farther North one was, the
fewer of the Southern stars could be seen, and how one can
see more of the Northern stars. He felt that this proved that
the Earth had to be spherical on every side.

Looks as if Ptolemy wasn't wrong about *everything*. And it
makes me wonder... people tend to believe "all or nothing." So
when Copernicus applied a simpler math to the heavens and
found the Sun to be more central than the Earth was, and when
Galileo was able to use his telescope to physically support this
idea... in other words, when people found that they had to go
along with the fact that Ptolemy had been dead wrong about the
geocentric system, did many of them also toss out his spherical
Earth idea and go with a Flat Earth?

Want to see a photograph of Claudius Ptolemy? Here's one
that was taken by a fellow time-traveler just last week... g

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~his...Ptolemy_6.jpeg

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

Painius