Agrippa (astronomer)

{{short description|Ancient Greek astronomer}}

{{for|other people named Agrippa|Agrippa (disambiguation)}}

Agrippa ({{langx|el|Ἀγρίππας}}; {{floruit|92 AD}}) was a Greek astronomer. The only thing that is known about him regards an astronomical observation that he made in 92 AD.{{cite book |author=Ptolemy |author-link=Ptolemy |title=Almagest |title-link=Almagest |others=VII, 3}} Ptolemy writes that in the twelfth year of the reign of Domitian, on the seventh day of the Bithynian month Metrous, Agrippa observed the occultation of a part of the Pleiades by the southernmost part of the Moon.{{cite journal |language=fr |url=http://www.cosmovisions.com/Agrippa.htm |journal=Imago Mundi |title=Agrippa |access-date=27 June 2019 |first=Serge |last=Jodra |year=2004–2017}}

The purpose of Agrippa's observation was probably to check the precession of the equinoxes, which was discovered by Hipparchus.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a9UXAQAAIAAJ |title=Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, linguistics and literature. Section C. |author=Royal Irish Academy |author-link=Royal Irish Academy |publisher=Hodges, Figgis |year=1964 |pages=155–157}}

The lunar crater Agrippa is named after him.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIcFxgAs-C8C&pg=PA129 |title=Photographic Atlas of the Moon |first=S. M. |last=Chong |first2=Albert |last2=Lim |first3=P. S. |last3=Ang |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=25 July 2002 |page=129 |isbn=9780521813921}}