At this briefing we view the heavens from the vantage point of the second, tenth, fourteenth, and twentieth centuries all at once (Session Q22). James Evans of the University of Puget Sound ([email protected]) argues that the second century astronomer Ptolemy is the first true scientist since he combined the highly theoretical Greek astronomy with the more practical but limited observations of the Babylonians to make the first system in which a mathematical model predicts planetary positions. George Saliba of Columbia University (212-854-4166; [email protected]) demonstrates the Medieval Moslem astronomers did not merely pass along the ancient Greek models to later Europeans. Owen Gingerich of Harvard (617-495-7216; [email protected]) looks at how aesthetic principles helped to sculpt Copernicus's model of the solar system, which, despite its being centered around the sun, actually was quite old fashioned in its insistence on perfectly circular and constant-velocity trajectories. Finally, Virginia Trimble of the University of Maryland and UC Irvine ([email protected]; 949-824-6948), chair of Session P8 ("Triumph of Twentieth Century Astrophysics") will provide the modern view.

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See also the APS virtual pressroom at www.aps.org/meet/APR00/baps/vpr. Journalists intending to attend the meeting should send in their request for a press badge, if they haven't already done so, to Ben Stein at [email protected].