Ptolemy's Role In Astronomy Research

Three extremely significant men of science and more importantly astronomy, excelled in their fields in leaps and bounds. Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Copernicus all were and still are renowned as great minds and influential astronomers. These great men were all well known for their models of the solar system, many aspects of these theories are still used in current research by our generation’s most brilliant minds in astronomy. The geocentric and heliocentric models of the solar system were possibly the most debated theory in the astronomical community throughout the centuries. The geocentric model of the solar system focused primarily on the hypothesis that the Earth was the center of the solar system and was stationary, with all planets and the
It “was a refinement of previous models developed by Greek astronomers” (Polaris Project, 2001) and forever changed the world of astronomy for the better. Though his theory was not correct many of his other observations were well explained. Ptolemy did not only just grasp the singular concept that the Earth was the center of the solar system, he also understood planetary orbits. Ptolemy recognized that the Earth was stationary and the sun and stars moved around it (Palma, 2014). One aspect of planetary motion that perplexed many astronomers including Ptolemy, was that fact that most objects in the sky at some point in their orbit appeared to be speeding up or in other cases would appear to move in reverse. He used different explanations to explain these phenomenon, one of them being an epicycle. Which is a celestial object that is orbiting the Earth but also is in rotation on a smaller circle while it moves around the circumference of a larger one. This theory partially explains these odd occurrences in planetary motion and as the circumstances grew more and more difficult to explain Ptolemy’s models grew more and more