Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!microsof!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxx!ignatz From: ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: The Earth-Centered Universe Message-ID: <473@ihuxx.UUCP> Date: Thu, 7-Jul-83 17:58:59 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxx.473 Posted: Thu Jul 7 17:58:59 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Jul-83 14:16:00 EDT References: ihuxx.470, <5517@unc.UUCP> Lines: 27 Concerning: an anecdote about an astrologer and her complaints; and Tim Maroney querying the difficulty of making a horoscope. (No, I'm not going to repost both articles, Virginia...) Tim, the way she told it, the tedious part was looking up all these entries in the ephemeris; particularly, she was a "professional" and insisted on accuracy to minutes of time, etc. To her, apparently, the simple arithmatic was boggling--generously, I'll allow that it may have been volume, not difficulty. Also, it's a lot simpler to translate to a Copernican system and simply calculate the position of a planet in its orbit than to try to figure in that silly retrograde motion. If you're figuring from the ephemeris, then the numbers may be easier to work out--but the motions of the planets are so regular that you could much more simply and easily program a base configuration and run a projection forward or back for almost any period of time, certainly acquiring a greater accuracy as well. Enough of this; any more and I'll start walking on thin ice. All I know, empirically, was that after pointing out that the Copernican calculations are very mechanical and easy to program, she hired somebody to do it and sold herself as having faster, more accurate horoscopes and counseling guides than anyone else; and seemed to make the money from the claim. Still not getting royalties, Dave Ihnat ihuxx!ignatz