Die Bahnbestimmung der Himmelskörper Die Gauss-Gibbssche Methode der Bahnbestimmung eines Himmelskörpers aus drei Beobachtungen

Abstract

THE dvelopment of convenient and general methods for calculating the orbit of any body around the sun from a limited number of observations constitutes a classical problem in the annals of astronomy. Its history, which has yet to be adequately written, now covers a period of rather more than two centuries, and during that time it has attracted the attention of many famous mathematicians whose successes and failures are alike remarkable. At the timeof Newton long records had made the principal features of the orbits of the known planets familiar, and no addition to their number was made within the next hundred years. Hence in the eighteenth century efforts were mainly directed to the determination of the parabolic orbits of comets. Yet the completely satisfactory solution was deferred until 1797, when Olbers's celebrated work appeared. Why Olbers succeeded when far greater mathematicians, such as Euler and Lagrange, had met with comparative failure is an interesting question. The fact is that the determination of orbits is an art demanding as such a sense of arithmetical technique and not merely an insight into the mathematical principles involved.

Die Bahnbestimmung der Himmelskörper.

By Julius Bauschinger. Pp. xv + 653; mit 84 Figuren im Text. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1906.)

Die Gauss-Gibbssche Methode der Bahnbestimmung eines Himmelskörpers aus drei Beobachtungen.

Mit einem Anhang zum “Grundriss der theoretischen Astronomie.” By Prof. Johannes Frischauf. Pp. 47. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1905.)