Conjunction of planets: procedures and examples from Indian astronomy texts

Abstract

The planetary conjunctions have always procured a very prominent place in astronomy texts from India. The calculations aim at the determination of exact instant of conjunction by method of iteration and prediction of the possibility of occultation, grazing or otherwise. We discuss details of the procedure from a text of 17th century and offer two examples from texts of 16th century devoted to worked examples based on different methods. One of them gives an angular separation of 1′, which would have been a challenge to observe. The possible sources of error in the estimates of longitude and speed are discussed. We also infer that the approximations in the estimation of angular diameter and node led to errors in the prediction of type of occultation.