A Survey of Meteoric Activity over Spain during the Eighth Fifteenth Centuries

The lack of astronomical observations from medieval and early modern Spanish sources is a constant in the records of solar eclipses, meteors, and other celestial phenomena. This may be partially explained by the absence of a documentary corpus similar to the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, for example, that scholars may use for conducting a systematic search of such records; the problems increase by the presence of four different vernacular languages in the peninsula: Castilian, Catalan, Basque, and Galician, together with some other minority languages, to which Latin and Arabic must be added for historical research purposes. Currently, scientific literature records few medieval Spanish astronomical accounts, and most of them are contained in wider Arab surveys or they come from the best-known annals and chronicles. Our article intends to fill this gap partially in the issue of meteoritic activity. We present a survey of meteors, bolides, and meteor storms observed in Spain in the eighth-fourteenth centuries. Most of them have not been previously published and come from local or minor sources, but for the sake of completeness, we have included some records already mentioned by other authors.A part of this work was supported by grant P1.1B2012-47 from Universitat Jaume I.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ. (2016). A Survey of Meteoric Activity over Spain during the Eighth Fifteenth Centuries. Journal for the History of Astronomy. 47:168-193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021828616649316S1681934

Analysis of meteoritic activity in the Vth-XVth centuries using an extended survey of European Medieval Sources

[EN] The distribution of meteors streams throughout a year from the 5th to the 15th century is investigated, based on a new compilation of meteor records in the diverse European Medieval sources. The records of meteor showers and storms in the chronicles of Korea, Japan, China and Arab have also been considered, and compare their appearance dates with those of showers obtained above, as well as with modern observations. We found that the three sets of data are in agreement with each other, the Perseids, Leonids, and Lyrids being best represented.Work of this paper was partially supported by the UJI-B2016-18, 161356 project.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ. (2018). Analysis of meteoritic activity in the Vth-XVth centuries using an extended survey of European Medieval Sources. Icarus. 315:20-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2018.06.015S202931

Fifteenth Century Comets in Non-Astronomical Catalan Manuscripts

[EN] From the fifteenth century onwards, it was common in Western Europe to consider astrology as the best instrument to provide a link between the circumstances of life on the Earth and the disposition of the stars in the universe. The intimate relation between astronomy and astrology is reflected even in non-specialist works where the words astrònom and astròleg are used indistinctly. To this effect, the intrusion of astrology into medicine is also revealing, mainly in the countries of the Mediterranean and Western Europe, where several university chairs in both astronomy and astrology were established.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ. (2016). Fifteenth Century Comets in Non-Astronomical Catalan Manuscripts. Journal of Catalan Studies. (18/19):51-65. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/136514S516518/1

Occultation of Planets by the Moon in European Narrative Medieval Sources

[EN] Existing research dealing with astronomical observations from medieval Europe have extensively covered topics such as solar and lunar eclipses and sightings of comets and meteors, but no compilation of occultations of planets by the Moon has been carried out and, till now, the data have remained scattered in different publications. The main reasons for this are the small number of observations that has reached us, their limited use for calculation of parameters associated with the rotation of the Earth, and the fact that between the fifth and fifteenth centuries, the period that we consider, almost none of these observations were made scientifically, since they usually appear in narrative texts, be they chronicles or annals. Our purpose is to make a compilation of these phenomena, trying to shed light on some of the most controversial observations after examining them in their historical context. We will examine European sources, but, occasionally, we will also consider reports from other parts of the world to make comparisons, when necessary.This paper was partially supported by the UJI-B2016-18, 16I356 project. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments that greatly contributed to improving the final version of the paper. They would also like to thank the editor for generous comments and support during the review process.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ. (2019). Occultation of Planets by the Moon in European Narrative Medieval Sources. Journal for the History of Astronomy. 50(2):192-220. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021828619845950S19222050

Astronomical references in the first volume of the Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1411-1539) and the the Dietari o llibre de Jornades de Jaume Safont (1411-1484)

In 2 08, after 13 years of preparation, the Generalitat of Catalunya finished the publication of the 10 volumes of the Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The Dietaris, as well as a closely related source, the llibre de Jornades 1411/1484 de Jaume Safont, cover the period of 1411 to 1539. In this article, we examine astronomical references contained in these two sources, and place them in their historical context. Our main focus lies on astronomical phenomena that have not previously been published in the astronomical literature. In fact, relatively few astronomical records are accessible in Spanish medieval and early modern history and our paper intends to fill this gap partially.Dept. Matematiques, IMAC, Campus de Riu Sec, 12071 Castello. (Spain). Part of this work was supported by grant P1.1B2012-47 from Universitat Jaume I. The authors wish to thank the Generalitat de Catalunya for allowing us the reproduction of part of the artwork contained in the Dietaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya. They also wish to thank the Servei de traduccio de la universitat Jaume I de Castello for their help in translating some of the ancient expressions contained in the Dietaris, and C.H. Luthy, editor of Early Science and Medicine, for his helpful comments and efforts to improve this paper.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ. (2014). New Astronomical References in Two Catalonian Late Medieval Documents. Early Science and Medicine. 19(2):174-185. https://doi.org/10.1163/15733823-00192P03S17418519

OSCURAUIT SOL: Stone Engravings and Other Contemporary Spanish Records for the a.d. 1239 and a.d. 1354 Eclipses and Their Astronomical Implications

The eclipse of a.d. 1239 June 3 was observed at no less than 10 sites in Europe, but the one from a.d. 1354 September 17 was observed only from two European sites. In this paper, we present several new references for the a.d. 1239 and a.d. 1354 solar eclipses, most of them from unpublished Spanish documents. In particular, we study three records engraved on stones whose existence was not known until recently. Such records are very rare in the rest of Europe. The study of ancient eclipses has proven to be useful for obtaining some astronomical data of interest to modern astronomy. In particular, the analysis of these eclipses may be useful for determining a range of T for the epochs.Part of this work was supported by a grant AICO/2015/037 from Generalitat Valenciana.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ.; Ibañez, L. (2016). OSCURAUIT SOL: Stone Engravings and Other Contemporary Spanish Records for the a.d. 1239 and a.d. 1354 Eclipses and Their Astronomical Implications. Journal for the History of Astronomy. 47:61-75. doi:10.1177/0021828615620985S61754

Geometrical definition of a continuous family of time transformations generalizing and including the classic anomalies of the elliptic two-body problem

[EN] This paper is aimed to address the study of techniques focused on the use of a family of anomalies based on a family of geometric transformations that includes the true anomaly f, the eccentric anomaly g and the secondary anomaly f' defined as the polar angle with respect to the secondary focus of the ellipse. This family is constructed using a natural generalization of the eccentric anomaly. The use of this family allows closed equations for the classical quantities of the two body problem that extends the classic, which are referred to eccentric, true and secondary anomalies. In this paper we obtain the exact analytical development of the basic quantities of the two body problem in order to be used in the analytical theories of the planetary motion. In addition, this paper includes the study of the minimization of the errors in the numerical integration by an appropriate choice of parameters in our selected family of anomalies for each value of the eccentricity. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research has been partially supported by Grant P1.1B2012-47 from University Jaume I of Castellón and Grant AICO/2015/037 from Generalitat Valenciana.López Ortí, J.; Marco Castillo, FJ.; Martínez Uso, MJ. (2017). Geometrical definition of a continuous family of time transformations generalizing and including the classic anomalies of the elliptic two-body problem. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 309:482-492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2016.02.041S48249230

Geometrical definition of a continuous family of time transformations on the hyperbolic two-body problem

[EN] This paper is aimed to address the study of techniques focused on the use of a new set of anomalies based on geometric continuous transformations, depending on a parameter a, that includes the true anomaly. This family is an extension of the elliptic geometrical transformation to the hyperbolic case. This transformation allows getting closed equations for the classical quantities of the hyperbolic two body problem both in the attractive and in the repulsive case. In this paper, we obtain the link between hyperbolic functions of hyperbolic argument H to trigonometric functions for each temporal variable in the new family, including also the inverse relations. We also carry out the study, in the attractive case, of the minimization of the errors due to the choice of a temporal variable included in our family in the numerical integration by an appropriate choice of parameters. This study includes the analysis of the dependence on the parameter of integration errors in a great time span for several eccentricities as well as the study of local truncation errors along the region with true anomaly contained in the interval [-pi/2, pi/2] around the primary for several values of the parameter. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research has been partially supported by Grant P1.1B2012-47 from University Jaume I of Castellon and Grant AICO/2015/037 from Generalitat Valenciana.López Ortí, J.; Marco Castillo, FJ.; Martínez Uso, MJ. (2018). Geometrical definition of a continuous family of time transformations on the hyperbolic two-body problem. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 330:1081-1092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2017.04.048S1081109233

Fixed point method to analyze differences between Hipparcos and ICRF2

[EN] From 1998, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a new Celestial Reference System: the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS). The first optical materialization was the Hipparcos catalogue, defining the Hipparcos Celestial Reference Frame (HCRF). The compilation of subsequent radio sources catalogues culminated in the current representation of the ICRF, the ICRF2 catalogue that is not sufficiently dense to cover all astrometrical purposes. Linking Hipparcos and ICRF2 is essential to uniformize the reference regardless of whether it is visible (HCRF) or not (ICRF). Many working groups provide their own complementary catalogs, some of whose sources are also in the ICRF2, with different reduction processes for positions. The point is that they provide information in more than one reference for a small number of objects. Some of these projects have been used by us to study the Hipparcos-ICRF2 differences: a certain number of couples of catalogs can be interrelated using a set of parameters. With these couples, we build a closed cycle with the same ending and departure couple. The parameters obtained from each couple affect the next; thus we have an iterative process whose fixed point is the solution that stabilizes it, providing a preliminary link for Hipparcos-ICRF2.Part of this work was supported by the Grant P1-061I455.01/1 from Bancaja.Martínez Uso, MJ.; Marco Castillo, FJ.; Lopez Orti, JA. (2014). Fixed point method to analyze differences between Hipparcos and ICRF2. Abstract and Applied Analysis. 2014(1):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/917583S172014

Relationship between 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D and Body Composition in Middle-Aged Sedentary Adults: The FIT-AGEING Study

Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem that, in addition to its well-known negative effects on musculoskeletal health, has been related to a wide range of acute and chronic age-related diseases. However, little is known about the association of body composition with the active, hormonal form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D plasma levels (1,25(OH)2D). Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of 1,25(OH)2Dwith body composition including lean and fat body mass as well as bone mineral density (BMD) in middle-aged sedentary adults. Atotal of 73 (39 women) middle-aged sedentary adults (53.7 5.1 years old) participated in the current study. We measured weight and height, and we used dual energy X-ray absorptiometry to measure lean body mass, fat body mass and BMD. Body mass index (BMI), lean mass index (LMI), and fat mass index (FMI) were calculated. 1,25(OH)2D was measured using a DiaSorin Liaison®immunochemiluminometric analyzer. The results showed a negative association of 1,25(OH)2D with BMI, LMI and BMD ( = -0.274, R2 = 0.075, p = 0.019; = -0.268, R2 = 0.072, p = 0.022; and = -0.325, R2 = 0.105, p = 0.005, respectively), which persisted after controlling for age and sex. No significant differences in 1,25(OH)2D across body weight status were observed after controlling for the same covariates. In summary, our results suggest that 1,25(OH)2D could be negatively associated with BMI, LMI and BMD whereas no association was found with FMI in middle-aged sedentary adultsA.D.-l.-O. is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU15/03960). L.G.-M. is supported by a fellowship from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434) and the fellowship code is LCF/BQ/PR19/11700007. F.J.A.-G. is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU14/04172), the University of Granada Plan Propio de Investigación 2016-Excellence actions: Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES)-and Plan Propio de Investigación 2018-Programa Contratos-Puente