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Cleomedes' Lectures on AstronomyA Translation of The Heavens$
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Cleomedes' Lectures on Astronomy: A Translation of The Heavens

Cleomedes and Lawrence Witmer

Print publication date: 2004

Print ISBN-13: 9780520233256

Published to California Scholarship Online: March 2012

DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520233256.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM CALIFORNIA SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.california.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright University of California Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in CALSO for personal use.date: 18 May 2022

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Chapter:
(p.44) Chapter Three
Source:
Cleomedes' Lectures on Astronomy
Author(s):

Alan C. Bowen

Robert B. Todd

Publisher:
University of California Press
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520233256.003.0004

This chapter shows that the latitudes of the Earth have differing seasons caused by the motion of the Sun in the zodiacal circle. The lengthening of daytimes causes the seasons to be reversed in the temperate zones. Since the equinoctial circle is a great circle, it also maintains the same position relative [to the Earth] even in the temperate zones, whereas the [successive circles] that proceed from it toward the poles do not. The daytime gets continually shorter until the Sun approaches the winter tropic, while the nighttime remains longer than the daytime until, after the solstice at the winter tropic, the Sun provides a daytime that gets longer by turning back from this tropic to approach the equinoctial circle and causes the vernal equinox.

Keywords:   seasons, latitudes, Earth, Sun, zodiacal circle, daytime, nighttime

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