A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c8.s2.1

c8.s2.1

In astronomical computations, the longitude of a planet is measured along the ecliptic, while, in fact, its motion takes place along its own orbit which, generally, deviates slightly from the ecliptic. For an accurate computation of the planet's position this deviation has to be taken into consideration. In the West, it was the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who enunciated a formula for this ‘Reduction to the ecliptic’.¹