Dante and the early astronomers . , normal. New Moon near the Pleiades aftersunset on the 1st of Nisan. The position of the young moon (which always closely follows the sun) showed thatthe sun was not far west of the Pleiades ; and about 1000 this proved that it wasnear the vernal equinox. The suns position is given for about half an hour after sun-set, when the Pleiades would first be visible. this case he would also be west of Dilgan, the RamsHead, so those stars would rise after him in themorning, and be hidden in his light: therefore, boththe morning and the evening observation combin
Dante and the early astronomers . , normal. New Moon near the Pleiades aftersunset on the 1st of Nisan. The position of the young moon (which always closely follows the sun) showed thatthe sun was not far west of the Pleiades ; and about 1000 this proved that it wasnear the vernal equinox. The suns position is given for about half an hour after sun-set, when the Pleiades would first be visible. this case he would also be west of Dilgan, the RamsHead, so those stars would rise after him in themorning, and be hidden in his light: therefore, boththe morning and the evening observation combined toshow that his course was not completed, and that theyear must be lengthened by the addition of an extramonth. Several lists of stars and star-groups indicating themonths in this way have been found, the early listscontaining only a few, the later twelve. If our zodiacoriginated with the Babylonians, there is little doubtthe idea took its rise from these monthly stars, but itis not possible, with our present knowledge, to say. Fig. 8. Second Year, normal. New Moon not far from Pleiadeson the 1st of Nisan. It takes the sun 365 days to return to the same place among the stars, but theBabylonian year of 12 lunar months (each of 29 or 30 days) was 11 dajs short of this :therefore on the 1st of Nisan in this year the sun had still 11 days march before himere he returned to the position of Fig. J . This is equal to about 11, so the youngmoon was also about 11° west of her former position, near the Pleiades. But as shetravels about 13 eastward every day, she would be near the Pleiades on the followingevening, the 2nd of Nisan, so this year was also counted normal.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectastronomy, booksubjectdantealighieri
