biography
| name: |
Hipparchos / Hipparchus
|
pronunciation:
[hipah(r)kus]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (2nd-c BC)
|
| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Nicaea, Rhodes. He carried out observations at Rhodes, discovered the precession of the equinoxes and the eccentricity of the Sun's path, determined the length of the solar year (to within seven minutes), estimated the distances of the Sun and Moon from the Earth, and drew up a catalogue of 850 stars. He also fixed the geographical position of places by latitude and longitude, and invented trigonometry. |
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