Maragheh observatory and the Tusi couple
Observatorio de Maraghe y el par de Tusi
- Date
- 1259 · confidence high
- Place
- Maragheh, East Azerbaijan, Iran
- Credited to
- Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
- People
- 👤 Nasir al-Din al-Tusi1201–1273
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
The first great institutional observatory with giant instruments and a library; it produced the Ilkhanic Tables and the 'Tusi couple', a geometric device that eliminates the Ptolemaic equant and later reappears in Copernicus.
The possible transmission link between Maragheh and Copernicus remains debated.
What it led to
- Ulugh Beg's Samarkand Observatory
- Non-Ptolemaic models of Ibn al-Shatir
- Copernicus's instrumentation
Built on
Made possible
- Ibn al-Shatir's planetary modelsc. 1350
- Ulugh Beg observatory and star catalogue1420-1437
- Copernican heliocentrism1543
- Jai Singh II's monumental astronomical instruments (Jantar Mantar)1728-1734
- The observatory as a scientific institution
- Mural quadrant