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  • From: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Chronology - was uncancellable meaning in hebrew verbs
  • Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:46:12 +0200


Dear James,

While I have a very good background in Hebrew and Akkadian (having taught both languages for 12 years), I have little background in mathematics and astronomy. So here I have to rely on others. I use four astro-programs: TheSky6., SkyMap Lite, CyberSky 4, and TheSky X (for Macintosh). As for solar and lunar eclipses, all the programs give the same information, and this is the same as can be found at NASA.

Some of the positions of the moon and the planets found in old cuneiform tablets (some being real observations, an quite a lot being backward calculations) have very specific measures; some go down to the equivalent to 1/2 degree, and others even to a few minutes. In these specific cases there can be some problems because the programs sometimes differ, in special cases up to 2 degrees. I have discussed the reason for this with several US astronomers, and they have told me that the differences probably are caused by slightly different mathematical formulas in the different programs. Their advice has been to use TheSky X or the related TheSky6, because these are the most accurate programs. I have a colleague at the University of Oslo, who is professor in astrophysics with archaeoastronomy as one of his special fields. He has at my request made some calculations-not using any of the mentioned programs-and his results are almost exactly the same as those found by the help of TheSky X. I therefore think that the positions I have found has a good foundation.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


Sounds like good stuff. That's the kind of thing I've been meaning to look into for a long while.

What sources do you use for astronomical events such solar eclipses etc?

James Christian







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