Hipparchus: Virgo II
Spica is the grain in the hand of the Goddess.
This is an instance where some of the stars of Ptolemy’s day have moved, quite noticeably, in the intervening years.
The text speaks of three-in-a-row, but doesn’t quite match the modern sky. We look to the stars of Ptolemy’s day, to find that things in this neighborhood have changed.
This is pretty geeky stuff.
But if you think about it, much of the history of science has been a matter of trying to understand and explain the geeky stuff.
Let’s go look.
You know the drill by now.
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