Re: Astronomy - History

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> > >   Two questions and a comment re: Planetary orbits
> > > 1) How does one determine the orbit of a superior planet, eg Mars, from
> > > visual observations? A reference will do.

> > It is not an easy algorithm. Carl Friedrich Gauss was the first to do it.
> > He demonstrated that three observations (time and celestial coordinates)
> > were necessary and sufficient to determine a Keplerian orbit of a body of
> > negligible mass about the Sun.

> Wait a minute! Kepler was the first to do it else he would have no
> basis for his first law. Gauss simply reduced the mathematical
> complexity as much as possible, demonstrating that orbit
> determination could be done with only 3 observations.

The question, I believe, is "How does one determine..."  My comment
relates to the fact that Gauss was the first one to do it in the
the manner in which "it is done". Kepler's method is scarcely one
which one would prescribe today.

Leigh