Hipparchus
(c.190-120BC)One of the most important astronomers of the
ancient world. He was born in Nicea (today's Turkey), but lived and worked on
Rhodes and was to influence the famous astronomer Ptolemy.
Hipparchus made very accurate measurements of the length of the year, worked
out a method to locate geographis positions by using latitudes and longitudes,
and catalogued more than 1000 stars. He also founded the basis for modern
trigonometry.