Bharatiya Jyotihshastra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c12.s9.22

v2.c12.s9.22

MR. GOPAL BALLAL BHIDE**, a member of the group interested in the sāyana almanac, helped him much by his efforts in this direction. The work of finally determining the rules for the heliacal rise and set of planets, after coordinating the results of all our observations has not yet been completed. The rises and sets of Saturn used to occur mostly in the rainy season or about that time during five years preceding Śaka 1811 and hence we did not get an opportunity for observing them. We got the chance of observing the phenomena about Mars only once or twice. If any of the readers feels inspired by this and communicates to him his experiences in this subject, he would be doing a great service to the Science of Astronomy. The sky is sometimes cloudy even in summer; the planets when they are on the point of rising or setting, are situated very close to horizon. Many such obstacles come in the way of taking observations. It has, however, been gathered from experience, that the kālāṃśa mentioned in our old works are tolerably accurate. It is true that Mercury and Venus appear brighter when they are retrograde; however, the variation in their kālāṃśas mentioned by some works as due to their direct or retrograde motion is far from correct—as a matter of fact one may safely say that the variation is next to nothing.