Talk:Prutenic Tables

The Prutenic tables do not constitute an ephemeris: they are fundamental astronomical tables

As of (2026/June/25) the opening paragraph of this subject page makes a fundamental mistake that hinders understanding.

Fundamental astronomical tables for celestial bodies did not do what an ephemeris does, i.e. they do not actually give "the position (and possibly velocity) [of the body] over time". Nevertheless, one of their uses was for calculating ephemerides which do have those functions. The way that fundamental tables used to enable the calculation of ephemerides involved a customary separation of the non-uniform true motions of astronomical bodies into two parts, e.g. for the sake of making the tables of manageable size while enabling the calculation of positions over indefinitely long intervals and periods of time. The two parts were: first a long-term mean (but fictitious) motion and position, with provision of relatively simple tables to calculate those quantities on the fictitious assumption that the body moves uniformly; and second, an apparatus of "equations" intended to provide the (fluctuating) differences needed at any time to yield the 'true' i.e. non-uniform position or motion -- sometimes less, sometimes greater than the average or mean motion, of course. The expression 'fundamental tables' is not a very common one, but it has been used e.g. in the *Astronomical Almanac* in just the way described in this note, to distinguish between ephemerides themselves and the tables used to calculate them.

Ephemerides used to be calculated in two stages starting from fundamental tables: First, the mean motion tables would be used to yield the (fictitious) mean position of the body plus any other arguments (i.e. quantities expressing other aspects of the configuration of the considered body) needed to calculate the equations. Second, these intermediate quantities would be used according to the current form of instructions (which used to differ from one set of fundamental tables to another) to calculate the 'equations' and then apply them to the mean position in oder to get the calculated true position for the wanted time. The tables of equations were not given in terms of the time, they were tabulated in terms of the mean positions or other applicable arguments, differing from one theory to another. Among the results of this plan was a reduction in the volume of tabular material that otherwise would have been needed. Terry0051 (talk) 16:39, 26 June 2026 (UTC)

Prutenic?

Why are they called prutenic? What does that word mean? Why were they not called the tabulae albertinae after their sponsor? Rwflammang (talk) 01:50, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Apparently, Prutenia is Latin for "Prussia". Rwflammang (talk) 02:03, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

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