Caption: Ptolemy (c.100--c.170 CE) with an armillary sphere.

Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the Earth.
---Ptolemy (c.100--c.170 CE): quotation from goodreads: Quotes: Ptolemy.

Features:

1. Ptolemy is arguably the greatest of the ancient Greek astronomers.

2. Among many other things, Ptolemy wrote up a star catalogue (i.e., the Ptolemaic catalogue of 1022 stars) in his book the Almagest (c.150 CE) (Wikipedia: Almagest: The star catalogue). There were 1022 stars mostly located in the Ptolemaic 48 constellations many of which constellations are in the modern IAU 88 constellations. Many, maybe all, the Ptolemaic 48 constellations had been known before Ptolemy though probably NOT completely defined (Wikipedia: Constellation: Early modern astronomy). Some may be very ancient: e.g., constellation Taurus might go back to to circa 15,000 BCE (Wikipedia: Taurus: History and mythology).

3. In the Ptolemaic catalogue of 1022 stars, Ptolemy listed 6 cloudy stars (plus one cloudy object NOT associated with any star) (No-113,402; Wikipedia: Nebula: Observational history; SEDS: Ptolemy (about 85-165 AD)).

   In ancient Greek, the word Ptolemy used for the cloudy objects was "nephele" which became a loanword in Latin as nebula (Latin for cloud or fog). Note nebula (L.) = nephele (G.) = νηφηλη (G. letters).

   Note Ptolemy may NOT have been the original discoverer of nebulae, but he is the first person in the historical record to mention them. Maybe some earlier ancient Greek astronomer or some Babylonian astronomer or someone ever further back (maybe even in the Paleolithic (c.3.3 Myr--c.11,700 BCE)) was first.

4. So in scientific method terms, there were observations of ordinary stars and observations of nebulae.

   But what was the theories for both. Time would tell. A very long time.

5. The crude sketch in the image is based on a wood scuplture by Joerg Syrlin the Elder (c.1425--1491) that was made circa 1469--1474. The wood scuplture is in the choir stalls of Ulm Minster, Ulm, Germany. An image of the original and better description can be found at the Ptolemy iconography site of Robert Derome, University de Quebec a Montreal.

6. See Ptolemy videos below (local link / general link: ptolemy_videos.html):

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   Credit/Permission: © David Jeffery, 2003 / Own work.
   Image link: Itself.
   Local file: local link: ptolemy_armillary.html.
   File: Ptolemy file: ptolemy_armillary.html.
   

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