Astronomical Images : Solar eclipse, and declination and latitude

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 left-hand woodcut shows how, by reason of parallax, the whole Sun is never universally eclipsed in the whole of the Earth. The right-hand woodcut shows the celestial globe with the pole of the ecliptic (zodiac) and the pole of the World. The declination of a star is its distance from the equator and is reckoned in the circle passing through the poles of the World through the centre of the body of the star. The latitude of a star is its distance from the ecliptic and is reckoned in the circle that passes through the poles of the ecliptic and the true position of the star.</p>