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Re: Baffled by Baffin
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2005 Nov 28, 21:35 -0500
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2005 Nov 28, 21:35 -0500
tony wrote: >3. David Origamus was the author of an ephemeris for the years 1595 until >1650 and based on the meridian at Wittenberg. Later in his journal, Baffin >uses both Origamus and Searle with similar results and refers to a 17 >degrees difference in longitude between London and Wittenberg. > > Dear Tony, I have not yet had a chance to look into the details of your interesting question which started this thread. But regarding the ephemerides of David Origanus (spelling! Latinized form of Trost), they are based on the meridian of Frankurt/Oder. There is no connection between Origanus and Wittenberg, except, perhaps, that his ephemerides are partly based on the tables of Reinhold, who taught there. But Reinhold's tables were based on the meridian of Koenigsberg, Prussia. Origanus was a professor in Frankfurt when he published his ephemerides, but prior to that he was in Breslau. Curiously enough, that place is 17 deg east of London. I leave it to you what you want to make of this. I believe it is just a coincidence. Herbert Prinz