Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c9.91

c9.91

But it is otherwise with respect to the moon, where the difference between considering the argument of the equation as the mean, or as the eccentric anomaly, is not insensible. The authority of the precepts, and of the tables, are here opposed to one another; and we can decide in favour of the latter, only because it leads to a more accurate determination of the moon's place than the former. It would indeed be an improvement on their method of calculation, which the Brahmins might make consistently with the principles of their own astronomy, to extend to the moon their rule for finding the equation of the centre for the planets. They would then avoid the palpable error of making the maximum of the moon’s equation at the time when her mean anomaly is 90°, and would ascertain her place every where with greater exactness. It is probable that this is the method which they were originally directed to follow.