Hipparchus: The Trigonometry of the Cosmos

Space. It’s not just the final frontier. It’s not just an infinite three-dimensional platform where entities have position and direction. Space is a profound reminder that we are part of this giant construct of atoms, molecules, elements, compounds, voids, masses, and gravity, that work together as a unifying body that moves us in the universe’s dance of life! Starting with the Big Bang, we began to exist, even though we were in the dust scattered across the inflating universe.

Many of us examine the stars to understand where we came from and where we are going. We observe their movement to understand the beauty that encircles us every night as the sun sets. And we embrace its vast magnificence while identifying with our minuteness in this tremendously grand structure that is the universe.

The written history of astronomical observation dates back over two thousand years. Observing the night sky has evolved and developed so that we now have an extensive list of space telescopes that bring us up close to the beauty of our cosmos. It is utterly amazing to think that a little over 2,000 years ago, this data-gathering process began to advance through the brilliant work of the ancient astronomer Hipparchus.

Hipparchus was born in 190 BCE in the Kingdom of Bithynia, which today is now known as the region of Northern Anatolia, Turkey. We know about Hipparchus through the writings of ancient historians, mathematicians, and scientists, including Ptolemy, who utilized Hipparchus’s astronomical…