Canon der Finsternisse, Theodor von Oppolzer 1887

Gallery 4 of 4, 1309 to 2161

In the historical literature on eclipse calculations, the accuracy of Oppolzer’s methods is frequently discussed. These excerpts from William F. Rigge’s 1926 article in Popular Astronomy (see http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1926PA.....34...78R) are a good example of this critique. Rigge and others uniformly analyze the limitations of Oppolzer’s calculations, but acknowledge the enormity of the undertaking and the extraordinary usefulness of the Canon despite its inaccuracies.