Astronomical calculations
Kepler introduced the idea of elliptical orbits and increased the accuracy of prediction of planetary positions by a large factor. He based his calculations – essentially a curve fitting process – on the observations of Tycho Brahe, the first observational astronomer to produce _continuous_ nightly observation records.
I’ve parked an old site of mine that contains low precision formulas and procedures for calculating the positions of the planets at “http://bodmas.org/kepler/”:http://bodmas.org/kepler/ for now. I’ll be bringing this all together into a PDF based handout over the next few months.