Editing Ephemeris (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Corpus Christ College MS 283 (1).png|thumb|A Latin translation of [[al-Khwārizmī]]'s ''{{Transliteration|ar|zīj}}'', page from [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|Corpus Christi College]] MS 283]]
[[Image:Tablas alfonsies.jpg|thumb|350px|[[Alfonsine tables]]]]
[[Image:AlmanachPerpetuum.jpg|thumb|Page from ''Almanach Perpetuum'']]

*1st millennium BC – Ephemerides in [[Babylonian astronomy]].
*2nd century AD – the ''[[Almagest]]'' and the ''Handy Tables'' of [[Ptolemy]]
*8th century AD – the ''{{Transliteration|ar|[[zīj]]}}'' of [[Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī]]
*9th century AD – the ''{{Transliteration|ar|zīj}}'' of [[Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī]]
*11th century AD – the ''{{Transliteration|ar|zīj}}'' of [[Ibn Yunus]]
*12th century AD – the ''[[Tables of Toledo]]'' – based largely on Arabic ''{{Transliteration|ar|zīj}}'' sources of [[Astronomy in medieval Islam|Islamic astronomy]] – were edited by [[Gerard of Cremona]] to form the standard European ephemeris until the ''[[Alfonsine Tables]]''.
*13th century AD – the ''[[Zīj-i Īlkhānī]]'' (''Ilkhanic Tables'') were compiled at the [[Maragheh observatory]] in Persia.
*13th century AD – the ''[[Alfonsine Tables]]'' were compiled in Spain to correct anomalies in the ''Tables of Toledo'', remaining the standard European ephemeris until the ''[[Prutenic Tables]]'' almost 300 years later.
*13th century AD - the ''[[Dresden Codex]]'', an extant Mayan ephemeris
*1408 – [[Chinese astronomy|Chinese]] ephemeris table (copy in [[Pepysian Library]], Cambridge, UK (refer book '1434'); Chinese tables believed known to [[Regiomontanus]]).
*1474 – [[Regiomontanus]] publishes his day-to-day Ephemerides in Nürnberg, Germany.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=S.S.D. |last2=Howard |first2=John |last3=William |first3=May |last4=Logsdon |first4=Tom |last5=Anderson |first5=Edward |last6=Richey |first6=Michael |title=Navigation |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/navigation-technology |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. |access-date=13 March 2019}}</ref>     
*1496 – the ''Almanach Perpetuum'' of [[Abraham Zacuto|Abraão ben Samuel Zacuto]] (one of the first books published  with a [[movable type]] and [[printing press]] in [[Portugal]])
*1504 – While shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica, [[Christopher Columbus]] successfully predicted a lunar eclipse for the natives, using the ephemeris of the German astronomer [[Regiomontanus]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hoskin |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rH1iQgAACAAJ |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy |date=28 November 1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=89|isbn=9780521411585 }}</ref>
*1531 – Work of [[Johannes Stöffler]] is published posthumously at Tübingen, extending the ephemeris of Regiomontanus through 1551.
*1551 – the ''[[Prutenic Tables]]'' of [[Erasmus Reinhold]] were published, based on [[Copernicus]]'s theories.
*1554 – [[Johannes Stadius]] published ''Ephemerides novae et auctae'', the first major ephemeris computed according to Copernicus' [[heliocentric model]], using parameters derived from the ''[[Prutenic Tables]]''.  Although the Copernican model provided an elegant solution to the problem of computing apparent planetary positions (it avoided the need for the [[equant]] and better explained the [[apparent retrograde motion]] of planets), it still relied on the use of [[epicycles]], leading to some inaccuracies – for example, periodic errors in the position of Mercury of up to ten degrees.  One of the users of Stadius's tables is [[Tycho Brahe]].
*1627 – the ''[[Rudolphine Tables]]'' of [[Johannes Kepler]] based on elliptical planetary motion became the new standard.
*1679 – ''La [[Connaissance des Temps]] ou calendrier et éphémérides du lever & coucher du Soleil, de la Lune & des autres planètes'', first published yearly by [[Jean Picard]] and still extant.
*1975 – [[Owen Gingerich]], using modern planetary theory and digital computers, calculates the actual positions of the planets in the 16th century and graphs the errors in the planetary positions predicted by the ephemerides of Stöffler, Stadius and others. According to Gingerich, the error patterns "are as distinctive as fingerprints and reflect the characteristics of the underlying tables.  That is, the error patterns for Stöffler are different from those of Stadius, but the error patterns of Stadius closely resemble those of [[Maestlin]], [[Giovanni Antonio Magini|Magini]], [[David Origanus|Origanus]], and others who followed the Copernican parameters."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gingerich |first=Owen |date=1975 |title="Crisis" versus Aesthetic in the Copernican Revolution |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4258973/Crisis%20vs%20Aesthetic%20OGingrich.pdf |journal=Vistas in Astronomy |publisher=[[Elsevier BV]] |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=85–95 |doi=10.1016/0083-6656(75)90050-1 |bibcode=1975VA.....17...85G |s2cid=20888261 |access-date=23 June 2016}}</ref>