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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>
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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